In the latest Roy Morgan Internet Satisfaction survey, which covers the six months to November 2009, Internode topped the poll with 88.6 per cent of its customers reporting they were satisfied with its service. This result puts Internode more than 20 points ahead of Telstra, which recorded a customer satisfaction rate of just 66.6 per cent.

Internode's latest success in the Internet Satisfaction poll follows its chart-topping performance in the September 2008 Roy Morgan report, which found that 83.7 per cent of customers believed that Internode had met or exceeded their expectations. It also adds another accolade to three major successes Internode achieved late last year:

• Internode's selection as the Emerging Broadband Service Provider of the Year in the 2009 Frost & Sullivan Australia Best Practices Awards in November 2009;
• Topping a biennial ISP customer satisfaction survey by consumer advocacy group Choice; and
• Collecting the inaugural Best Internet Service Provider title in the annual SMLES survey held by AFR Smart Investor magazine.

Internode managing director Simon Hackett said he was "hugely proud" of this latest success. "This fabulous result comes down to the hard work of all the people at Internode," he said. "Satisfaction is a multiple axis thing - it's about network, support, sales, accounts, innovation and just... being us. While we're continuing to work on making things better for our customers, this survey result underscores that, compared to our peers, nobody is better at making customers happy than Internode.- statistically proven."

Internode is Australia's largest privately owned broadband service provider, with more than 450 employees and 180,000 customers nationally using its internationally-linked IPv6-enabled network.

In a statement on the Roy Morgan website, Roy Morgan communications industry director Norman Morris said that the clear leadership in customer satisfaction from the smaller players in the market, if maintained, could pose a major threat to the longer term strength of the two major players, Optus and Telstra. "The gap that we see currently of over 20 percentage points from the best performer to the market leader is higher than other service industries measured by Roy Morgan Research and as such is something in need of attention by those providers that trail substantially."

More Information

• Roy Morgan Press Release: Smaller Internet Providers Clear Leaders in Customer Satisfaction
• Internode awards