Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
556620 Telecommunications Policy 2012 8 Pages PDF
Abstract

The development of rural telecommunication services in Iran has been a major and national concern during the past few years. Towards the national planning and in a giant movement, 10 000 centers have been established in rural areas. Because of the novelty of such centers, the authors try to measure the service quality of the rural ICT centers using the SERVQUAL model. The results can be used towards the betterment of the services. Five hypotheses including tangibility, accountability, guarantee, empathy and reliability of service were examined. Twenty four ICT centers were selected in Rasht city as sample. Considering common sense or perception, 63% of the subjects evaluated the quality of services as average. In terms of quality, empathy was ranked as the ideal dimension followed by tangibility, certainties, trust, and guarantee, respectively. However, the least appropriate dimension of quality was given to accountability. In terms of expectation, the highest percentage of individuals, that is, 92% believed that quality of services was important, and believed that among the components of quality indices from the most to the least important items were: reliability, tangibility, accountability, guarantee, and empathy consecutively. This research showed that the SERVQUAL model can be used for determine the quality of services offered by Tele-centers in rural areas.

► To determine the quality of services offered by Telecenters in rural areas of Iran five hypotheses were examined. ► Validity and reliability of questionnaire were determined by Cronbach's alpha and KMO ratio methods. ► SERVQUAL model can be used for determine the quality of services offered by Telecenters in rural areas.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Computer Science Information Systems
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