Pittsburgh Residents Say Verizon Beats Comcast on Price, Service and Value

PITTSBURGH - By roughly 4-to-1 margins, Pittsburgh residents say Verizon beats Comcast in terms of value, reliability and service quality, according to a recent survey conducted for Verizon by Public Opinion Strategies. And, consumers shopping for a bundle of voice, Internet and video services today would be more than twice as likely to pick Verizon, the survey said.

Comcast’s biggest liability? It raises prices too often, a flaw mentioned by 43 percent of survey subjects, followed by citations that Comcast is unresponsive to customer service issues and customers' experiences of poor service.

Comparing Verizon with Comcast on a 0-100 scale of favorability, with 100 being the top score, Verizon received a 70 and Comcast received a 52. More than twice as many respondents ranked Verizon in the highly favorable 80-to-100-point range than they did Comcast.

Verizon won by a wide margin on the question of service reliability. When asked which company provided better phone service, Pittsburgh residents answered "Verizon" over 12 times more often than "Comcast," consistent with the results that showed Verizon was perceived to be a better value and more reliable overall.

As for choice, respondents answered "Verizon" three times more often than they did "Comcast" when asked which company gives customers a broader selection of calling and service options. And among Pittsburghers, Verizon's Internet service nosed out Comcast's by three percentage points.

"These numbers confirm what we've known for a while," said Philip Brown, Verizon's vice president of sales and regional marketing for Pennsylvania and Delaware. "Our superior service, combined with cable's constant rate hikes, makes switching to Verizon an easy choice for consumers."

The survey demonstrates why, in Pittsburgh and around the country, cable's promotional bundles are not always the best option. In a recent nationwide survey, the Leichtman Research Group reported that Verizon netted the most broadband customers among all cable and DSL providers over the past six months. Other data show DSL outpacing cable modems in new home installations.

Consumers were also tested on their views of what motivates the two companies. Compared with Comcast, more than three times as many respondents felt Verizon cares more about the quality of the service it provides than it does about profits, while nearly twice as many consumers felt Comcast cared more about its profit.

Reliability matters a lot to customers in Pittsburgh. Twenty-one percent cited the ability to make calls during a national or local emergency, and 20 percent cited more reliable access to emergency 911 service as reasons to choose Verizon over Comcast. Verizon's network is powered by redundant backup power systems, allowing corded phones to work during electrical failures.

Public Opinion Strategies conducted this survey, using an Internet panel survey format with Greenfield Online, among 300 adults who have a landline phone and broadband Internet service at home in the Pittsburgh market area. The survey was conducted in February and March and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.66 percent.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), a Dow 30 company, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving nearly 55 million customers nationwide. Verizon Business operates one of the most expansive wholly-owned global IP networks. Verizon Telecom is deploying the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network to deliver the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services to customers. Based in New York, Verizon has a diverse workforce of more than 252,000 and generates annual consolidated operating revenues of approximately $90 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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