Boston-based strategic marketing research firm STAT Resources conducted this survey, collecting data in two waves. First, STAT mailed surveys to 1,000 Network World readers. Respondents were chosen from a random list of readers who work in various industries, including manufacturing, finance/insurance, service, education, government and transportation.
Unlike hardware and software product categories, data network services are highly regionalized. To ensure that we had a statistically reliable number of customers of each regional Bell operating company, as well as each long-distance carrier, STAT supplemented the mail survey data with regionally targeted telephone interviews with a randomly selected group of readers. The final carrier ratings were based on responses from 408 readers.
Scores were rounded to the nearest whole number. Any difference greater than 2.5 is statistically significant.
Results are presented in two stages. First, a top-line assessment was based on five grades given by all users. Then, users were asked to provide in-depth scoring of 14 additional service and support characteristics for their primary carrier. These 19 primary carrier grades were averaged to determine eligibility for the Network World Honor Roll.
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