Residential Broadband Service Providers Have Improved Service Delivery and Problem Resolution Speed, says new TM Forum Report

MORRISTOWN, NJ — October 13, 2009 —TM Forum, the world’s premier industry group focused on business effectiveness for the communications and media sectors, revealed today that residential broadband Communications Service Providers (CSPs) are meeting rising customer expectations for rapid service delivery and fast problem resolution. This assessment of residential broadband services is made in TM Forum’s Insights Business Intelligence Report, “Winning in a Shrinking World: Seizing the Opportunities,” based on TM Forum Business Benchmarking studies and Analysys Mason projections.

The report finds that residential broadband is growing faster than expected, with major expansions in portions of the developing and emerging markets, and migration to double- and triple-play bundles in developed markets.

Results from the Forum’s Business Benchmarking studies show that best-in-class CSP service activation performance — the time from order to availability of customer-usable service — is one hour, while the average performance is about half a day. Leading CSPs are now meeting their service delivery commitments 95% of the time. This is dramatic improvement from the time when a CSP took two weeks to deliver broadband service as highlighted in TM Forum’s 2006 Broadband Business Performance Study.

Support response times and numbers of incident re-reports have also improved, with best-in-class incident resolution performance of 1 hour — a dramatic drop from over 6 hours a year ago. Average incident resolution times have shortened by 67% and problem resolution now typically takes one day.

“Subscribers now have more CSPs to choose from, making broadband subscriber churn a reality,” said Martin Creaner, president and COO, TM Forum. “Increased market share will go to service providers who provide residential broadband services at an attractive price with high quality.”

“With increasing sales of VoIP and IPTV bundles, it has become critical to maintain residential broadband service continuity,” added Tonia Graham, TM Forum Business Benchmarking program manager. “CSPs now have heightened commitment to service continuity and are treating their residential broadband customers with the same care that they provide subscribers who have Service Level Agreements.”

“Winning in a Shrinking World: Seizing the Opportunities” is the latest in a series of TM Forum Insights Business Intelligence Reports, exclusively available to the Forum’s membership of more than 700 companies, addressing strategic issues for Communications Service Providers. TM Forum members can download the report now at http://www.tmforum.org/ResearchPublications/7097/home.html.

To learn more about this Business Intelligence Report, or to participate in the Business Benchmarking program, please contact Tonia Graham at benchmarking {at} tmforum(.)org or visit www.tmforum.org/benchmarking.

Members of the press interested in obtaining a copy of the report should contact Geoff Devlin, PR director, TM Forum at pr {at} tmforum(.)org.

About TM Forum

With more than 700 member companies in 75 countries, TM Forum is the world’s leading industry association focused on improving business effectiveness for Service Providers and their suppliers. Serving the information, communications and entertainment industries, the Forum provides practical solutions, guidance and leadership to transform the way that digital services are created, delivered and charged. Members include the world’s largest Service Providers, cable and network operators, software suppliers, equipment suppliers and systems integrators.

TM Forum provides a wide range of information and support to help its members reduce the costs and risks associated with creating and delivering profitable services. These include industry research and benchmarks, technology roadmaps, best practice guidebooks, software standards and interfaces, as well as certified training, conferences and publications. The Forum also provides its member community with extensive marketing and networking opportunities, enabling business with new customers and partners.

About TM Forum’s Business Benchmarking Program

“Winning in a Shrinking World: Seizing the Opportunities” is the latest in a series of Insights Business Intelligence Reports that address strategic operations within Service Provider organizations. The reports are created by the TM Forum Business Benchmarking Program and available exclusively to TM Forum members.

The TM Forum Business Benchmarking Program is a one-of-a-kind program that provides tools, reports, and analysis that enable Service Providers to compare their business and operational performance to the performance of more than 130 Service Providers from 20 countries around the world.

The Business Benchmarking Program manages and delivers metric-based benchmarking studies, surveys on qualitative aspects of performance, and business intelligence reports. All Service Provider data is contributed anonymously through a secure portal to a secure database.

To learn more about this report or to participate in the Business Benchmarking Program, please contact Tonia Graham at benchmarking {at} tmforum(.)org or visit www.tmforum.org/benchmarking.

Global TM Forum Media Contact

Geoff Devlin PR Director

gdevlin {at} tmforum(.)org

+44 (0)7894 300 280

United States Media Contact

Nate Hubbell

March Communications

tmforum {at} marchpr(.)com

+1 617 960 9875