Orange Ranked Best For UK Mobile-Phone User Satisfaction

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- France Telecom SA's (FTE) Orange has been ranked the best network for customer satisfaction amongst U.K. contract mobile-phone users, according to JD Power's annual survey of the mobile-phone industry, published Tuesday.

Virgin Mobile Holdings PLC (VMOB.LN) was ranked highest within the pre-paid sector, performing strongly on cost of service and customer service.

Ironically, T-Mobile International AG (TMO.YY), the mobile arm of Deutsche Telekom AG (DT), was the only network provider to score below the industry average for both pre-pay and contract segments. Virgin Mobile uses T-Mobile's U.K. network to offer mobile-phone services.

The JD Power survey is conducted with more than 2,000 U.K. mobile-phone users.

The survey also found that focusing on reducing tariffs is proving successful in increasing customer satisfaction levels.

Additionally, 25% of those surveyed said they take photos using their mobile handset, with 21% sending those photos.

But the phones themselves were the one factor not to achieve an increase in customer satisfaction. More than 50% of those surveyed replaced their handset over the past 12 months.

In the pre-pay segment, Virgin Mobile achieved the highest levels of customer satisfaction, followed by Vodafone Group PLC (VOD), Orange, O2 PLC (OOM.LN) and then T-Mobile.

In the contract market, Orange ranked highest, followed by Vodafone, O2 and then T-Mobile. Virgin has only entered the contract market recently.

Company Web site: http://www.jdpower.com

-By Nic Fildes, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9264; nicolas.fildes@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 24th May 2005