Cable companies rank highest in telephone customer satisfaction in all six U.S. regions, according to J.D. Power and Associates’ latest study. Cable completely beat out the traditional telcos for the first time. Cox Communications is again tops in three of six regions, while Bright House, Cablevision and WOW! each top a region. Verizon, AT&T and Qwest were shut out at the top of all regions.

The study measures telephone customers’ satisfaction with their local and long distance providers in six major areas: performance and reliability, customer service, billing , image, cost of service, and offerings and promotions. The findings underscore the critical importance of bundling for service providers.

From the J.D. Power press release:

The study finds that 86 percent of cable-based voice subscribers also subscribe to data services from the same provider—up from 71 percent in 2006. Conversely, 36 percent of telecommunications-based voice subscribers also use their provider to fulfill their data needs, which is an increase of 7 percentage points over 2006. The impact of bundling is further evidenced by the boost in importance weight of the offerings and promotions factor, which has increased by 3 percent since the 2006 study.

Cox had the highest satisfaction the West Region for the fifth year in a row, while repeating last year’s place atop the ratings in the Southwest and Northeast. From Cox’s David Pugliese, VP of Product Marketing: “We’re pleased to be recognized once again in the J.D. Power and Associates study. Through the study’s findings, it is clear that Cox is outperforming the big old telephone companies in satisfying customers. We introduced a competitive phone offering nearly 10 years ago. The J.D. Power and Associates studies speak volumes to how satisfied our customers are with Cox Digital Telephone’s reliability, savings and convenience.” Click here for the J.D. Power and Associates release.