In cooperation with the research partner evolaris, mobilkom austria evaluated different methods for measuring network quality (voice and data network quality of mobile phone providers) with the objective of finding an appropriate method to measure network quality continuously.

The compared surveys have been conducted via SMS, w@p and web in terms of response rate, response behaviour, profile of respondents, usage behaviour, level of satisfaction with network quality and the satisfaction of joining the survey in general.

The hypotheses were that significant differences in response rates and profiles of respondents can be found. The impact on satisfaction was unclear but a drift to more positive tendencies was expected due to the supposed younger target group for answering SMS and w@p surveys.

In terms of response rates the web survey has been the most successful one, multi punch questions were equally efficient in web and in w@p surveys.

The SMS survey next to the w@p survey is the least representative for the whole customer data base of mobilkom austria, because it addresses primarily younger customers: 30% of the people who responded to the SMS survey were aged 19 and below, the 50 plus are represented only by 10% and web surveys are answered mainly by urban target groups.

The methods do not differ in terms of usage behaviour of mobile broadband, e.g. timing and location of usage, as well as the reason why customers were using mobile broadband.

The level of satisfaction with network quality is generally on a high level and with w@p even better than with web and SMS. The satisfaction with the survey in general reaches the highest level with SMS votings, followed by web surveys.