High costs come top of cellphone service concerns for customers in Bermuda, and they are increasingly dissatisfied with mobile data speeds, a survey has shown.

Residents also believe roaming charges are too expensive. Dropped calls and poor coverage are among other issues that have left customers unimpressed, according to the survey conducted on behalf of the Bermuda Regulatory Authority (RAB).

Cost of cellphone services was the top issue for 35 per cent of survey respondents, while some 77 per cent believe service prices in Bermuda are expensive.

On average residents spent $127 a month on cellphone service last year, which was $3 less than in 2013.

Responding to the survey’s findings, Digicel said it had listened to customers’ concerns and in January introduced postpaid payment plans better suited to smartphone users’ requirements, including unlimited local minutes and text, large data allowance and free access to millions of music tracks. Similar bundles and data boosts have been rolled out this month for its prepaid customers.

While Frank Amaral, CellOne’s chief executive officer, said: “Cost is always a concern especially when we are compared to other countries, but the fundamental issue is Bermuda’s size and relative cost of doing business. The cost of buying network gear, cell site lease rentals, electricity and payroll costs are much higher in Bermuda.”

However, he pointed out: “The opportunity for the consumer to reduce costs lies with buying more services from the same provider. To this end CellOne currently offers the lowest ISP costs on Island when bundled with mobile services.”

The survey revealed that cellphone ownership is almost universal across Bermuda, with 95 per cent of respondents indicating they had one.

And there appears to have been a distinct change in popularity among the devices, with Android smartphones being used by 38 per cent of those surveyed, up from 27 per cent in 2013.

There was little change to the ownership level of iPhones, which stood at 26 per cent last year, but usage of basic cellphones and BlackBerry devices fell significantly. Only 15 per cent of those surveyed owned a BlackBerry compared with 38 per cent in 2013.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they used data on their cellphones, but satisfaction with data speeds fell 16 points between 2013 and 2014, from 77 per cent to 61 per cent.

Digicel said that it spent millions of dollars last year modernising its network and it is continuing to make investments. The company said a subsequent independent test had confirmed improvements to its network.

Gaining access to the 850Mhz spectrum will also improve data speeds, according to Julian Burton, Digicel’s commercial director.

He said it would “greatly assist in increasing network speeds by improving signal quality and we have been working with the RAB for some time on this so will hopefully progress here soon”.

CellOne’s Mr Amaral also cited the benefits of extra spectrum in helping to address data speed issues.

He said the company was adding cell site capacity where it could, and plans to launch “data centric technologies like 4G LTE” in the near future, dependent on the release of the new spectrum by the RAB.

Some 88 per cent of Bermuda residents surveyed felt roaming service charges were expensive.

Mr Amaral said: “CellOne’s roaming Travel Pass has been in market for over 18 months and offers substantial discounts to standard pay per use rates.”

Digicel’s Mr Burton said the company had been working to secure deals in countries including the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and some Caribbean destinations.

“We were delighted to lead the market with our ‘Digicel Roaming Pass’ product that brings significantly reduced rates in the countries most important to most of our customers,” he said.

Dropped calls concerned 12 per cent of those surveyed, while 11 per cent indicated poor network coverage as a worry.

Mr Burton reiterated that Digicel was investing heavily in infrastructure and said coverage had improved and dropped calls declined year on year.

He added: “Rightly, there is due process for any new cell tower sites, so we cannot simply put new ones up whenever someone flags a grey spot for coverage so we are also constantly working to make clever software changes and directional tweaks to maximise service for the most people.”

CellOne’s Mr Amaral said topography and building construction materials caused challenges regarding dropped calls and coverage in Bermuda. He added: “Coverage is normally solved by adding cell sites and is constrained by their high cost, the number of customers that will benefit from adding a new site, and government planning approvals.”

The survey, which was conducted by Global Research, was limited to a sampling of 400 residents and had a stated margin of error of +/- 4.9 per cent. Within the group surveyed CellOne increased its market share from 52 per cent to 59 per cent during 2014.

Digicel said it did not feel the survey’s limited sample size gave an accurate reflection of market share and stated that it continued to see people switching to its service, particularly with local number portability.

CellOne CEO Mr Amaral said: “As demonstrated by the survey’s findings, CellOne’s customers have the ‘highest satisfaction’ and ‘likelihood to recommend’ scores. We continue to focus on those areas that require improvement in order to grow our market share even further.”

The survey has been posted at the RAB’s website, www.ra.bm