Mobile industry 'state of the nation' revealed

Camera phones are desirable, users are still shunning contracts for pre-paid handsets and branding is still all-important.

These are just some of the findings from this year's JD Power UK Mobile Telephone Customer Satisfaction Study. The annual snapshot has characterised the last 12 months as generally positive for the UK's four main operators, calculating customer satisfaction up seven per cent compared with 2002.

Gunda Lapski, director of European telecommunications services at JD Power, told silicon.com: "All the major new campaigns have been positive for the operators, though it is still too early to judge the effects of Orange's 'hard-nosed businessman'."

The latter was a controversial change of image for the number one, by numbers, operator in the UK, and rivals have also faced criticism over campaigns.

The face-lifts that saw One2One become T-Mobile - in line with other Deutsche Telekom-owned mobile properties around the world - and BT Cellnet become O2 have also not been universally accepted.

But of the T-Mobile change, Lapski asked: "Was it so much worse than O2?"

Other highlights this year include the rise of picture messaging. While only two per cent of respondents said they have a camera phone, 20 per cent expressed an interest in getting one.

Disappointing statistics revolved around other non-voice functionality and ownership preferences. Despite many users owning WAP phones, only 26 per cent of owners use that feature.

And even though operators have spent heavily on turning pre-pay, contract-less users into monthly subscribers - whose details and billing profile they know well - there are still three pay-as-you-go handsets for every contract phone.

"I'm surprised there are not more contract phones by now but because of the effort they've all been putting in this should improve in the future," Lapski added.

Just under 50 per cent of contract phone owners were found to use WAP services, showing one of the reasons for the operators' efforts.

Most of the network operators could find something to cheer about in the widely referenced report. O2's image among pre-pay customers has risen the most, Vodafone ranks highest for pre-pay customer satisfaction and Orange holds this coveted position in the contract market - something it pointed out in a statement celebrating "six years of success" in the study.