29 January 2009, Moscow. COMSTAR – United TeleSystems (COMSTAR-UTS OJSC, LSE: CMST), a major operator of integrated telecommunications services in Russia and the CIS, announces that, based on the results of research conducted by ROMIR Monitoring Analyst Company, broadband Internet access users in Moscow are most loyal to COMSTAR ISP (the STREAM brand).

In late 2008 – early 2009, ROMIR Monitoring conducted a survey on the BBA market in Moscow with the aim of gauging the level of subscriber loyalty to the ISPs. The customers of the four major BBA operators on the capital city’s market were involved in the research.

As the results of research indicate, the level of user loyalty to COMSTAR is noticeably higher than that of other ISPs. For example, COMSTAR’s NPS (Net Promoter Score, an international metric of customer loyalty) is 29.85%, which is much higher than that of other ISPs.

Furthermore, if all those involved in the survey were provisionally categorized into three groups: Most Loyal Users (Promoters), Neutral Users (Neutrals) and Judiciary Users (Detractors), then, according to ROMIR Monitoring’s data, the NPS has risen since 2008, in which the previous research was conducted, in particular, owing to migration of the Neutrals to the Promoters category. 

The results of research highlighted COMSTAR’s strong points as an ISP, among which, in the first place, are such measures as high Internet access rate, the service price/quality ratio, fault-free operation. Many research respondents describe COMSTAR as a dependable Internet access operator. The respondents, for the most part, are willing to recommend COMSTAR to their friends and personal acquaintances as an ISP.

“COMSTAR has proved out its leadership in broadband Internet access on the Moscow market once again,” noted Alexey Goncharuk, first Vice-President of COMSTAR-UTS OJSC. “We, as an operator, are not only # 1 in terms of the subscriber base, but also are leading in such an important metric as the loyalty of customers. This is especially significant in the context of saturation of the capital city’s BBA market when the quality of service and a comprehensive service offering become a deciding factor to users.” 

Earlier on, Direct Info, an analyst company, conducted a similar research  citing the data on user satisfaction with the leading BBA providers in Moscow.  As the results of research indicate, COMSTAR is in the top place among all broadband Internet access operators in Moscow in such parameter as the Quality of Service, i.e.: 59% of the respondents said that they were content with the quality of COMSTAR’s service.