New Zealand Internet Service Providers are doing all they can to convince us that broadband is better, but when it comes to the crunch, we’re not happy.

Fewer than 50% of Xtra customers are satisfied with the service they receive from Telecom, according to a Consumers’ Institute survey of 10,000 Internet users. For the third year in a row, Xtra was placed last in the battle of the Internet providers, with just 42% of customers rating its performance as ‘good’ or ‘very good.’ Satisfaction has dropped from 55% in 2006 and 78% in 2005. Xtra has faced a number of crises over the last year - earlier in the year Xtra’s merger with Yahoo caused massive glitches with email service, and on Sunday, outages meant emergency service staff were forced to use pen and paper…

The news wasn’t good for New Zealand ISPs in general either: dissatisfaction is rife amongst Internet customers. As ISP’s promise more, expectations are raised and so too, it seems, is disappointment. Broadband speed and the cost of Internet plans were the main areas of dissatisfaction. Consumers’ Institute chief executive Sue Chetwin says:

“Broadband users have been promised so much in terms of faster speeds, larger data caps, and cheaper pricing, but our survey shows that most customers think they’re getting a rough deal. And compared with overseas, there’s no doubt they are.”

Telecom has said it is disappointed with the survey results (well, they were hardly going to be over the moon, were they?) and believe a recently announced $1.4 billion investment plan will result in a faster broadband technology platform for New Zealand customers.

On the upside, Inspire found favour with its customers for the fourth year in a row, inspiring 94% of customers to report they were happy with the ISP’s performance. Actrix and Maxnet also rated very well.