Cox ranks high for customer service

Cox Communications, which is buying the Las Vegas cable television system, ranks No. 1 in the cable TV industry for customer satisfaction in a new J.D. Power survey.

But the bad news for the industry is that cable firms still lag behind satellite television companies for customer service, J.D. Power and Associates found.

The annual survey ranking TV providers didn't list Prime Cable, the current operator of the 325,000-customer Las Vegas system, because of the company's size.

But Cox Communications Inc. of Atlanta, which is taking over the Las Vegas operation, was ranked No. 1 among cable operators in the Power study.

Power's 1998 rankings, announced Wednesday, had Cox fourth overall behind three satellite dish companies in the customer satisfaction survey.

The study ranked cable and satellite TV services for cost of service, program offering, corporate image, reception quality, service timeliness, service representatives and billing.

Power said Cox, which has been first for three straight years, ranked highest in corporate image and program offering.

The top three satellite TV providers, according to the survey, are Primestar, The Dish Network and DirecTV.

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