Telecommunications

Telecommunications

T-Mobile takes the top spot. Telecom firms scored better overall than in 2006 on reliability--a major weakness for several of these companies last year--and that was rewarded with a five-point average increase in customer loyalty. Still, this is the lowest-scoring industry category; there's plenty of room for improvement. By focusing on its business customers' needs, the American division of Deutsche Telekom AG noses out two U.S.-based telecoms for the top spot in this category; T-Mobile saw a 10-point rise in solving its customers' business problems, and a 14-point boost in flexibility and responsiveness. BellSouth and Quest deserve credit for their five-point rise each from last year. The "new AT&T" dropped seven points, dragged down apparently by its acquisition of Cingular; in 2006, Cingular earned an overall rating of 49.