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Despite major advertising campaigns run by the large long distance telephone companies costing billions of dollars, 10 percent of the telecom consumer population is still unaware of who their long distance carrier really is, says a new Consumer Telecom Report by
Insight Research.
According to Insight's report Consumers' Reactions to Telecom Competition, six percent of the consumers surveyed said they did not know who their long distance carrier is, and another four percent were confused, incorrectly citing their local Bell operating company
(RBOC) as providing their long distance service.
Why are these consumers confused? "Look at the telephone bill--it's the RBOC logo on the envelope, it's their name on the monthly check," says Robert Rosenberg, president of
Insight. "These results confirm the phone bill's mind share influence, something that may play a big role in the
RBOCs' long distance market entry. The RBOCs could potentially capture that uncertain ten percent by utilizing their direct billing advantage," Rosenberg concluded.
The report warns, however, that heavy solicitation or too many bill-stuffing advertisements may have an adverse effect. With more dual-income households, more single parents, and more people running small businesses from home, people have less time to shop and make decisions for telecommunications products and services. An onslaught of information may require time many do not have, resulting in consumers making rash decisions or no decisions at all, i.e., staying with the same companies and products.
Further consumer forecasts of telecommunication services are published in Consumers' Reactions to Telecom Competition, a 102-page market research study. Primary research consisted of interviews with regulators, industry players, academicians, as well as
Insight's proprietary survey of 1,018 consumers. For this sample, the survey data was weighed to account for probabilities of random selection and balanced by age, gender, race, and education to match U.S. Census demographic variables.
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US
Hispanic Use of Telecom Services 2002-2007
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Telecom
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