Phone Cards & Web Calling Magazine

Call quality is the biggest factor in customer satisfaction for prepaid mobile users, according to the J.D. Power and Associates "2007 U.S. Wireless Prepaid Customer Satisfaction Study."

Call quality was judged as the most important prepaid service attribute by 24% of respondents. Other elements named, in descending order of importance, were company image (19%); cost of service (17%); account management (15%); initial activation (11%); service plan options (8%); and customer service (6%).

"It's encouraging to see that industrywide service improvements such as expanded service offerings and aggressive service plan pricing have resulted in higher satisfaction with wireless service experiences," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates, in a statement.

Prepaid customers used 218 minutes per month. That is less than half as much as postpaid customers, who averaged 528 minutes per month.

Nearly six in 10 prepaid phones with prepackaged minutes came from retail stores. One-quarter of prepaid customers bought their phones online. About 16% purchased minutes cards separately from their mobile phones.

J.D. Power surveyed 2,925 prepaid mobile customers.