Cellular service provider Hutch and Aircel jointly lead the customer expectations ranking, ahead of Reliance, Tatas and Bharti as per the latest survey by TNS Celltrack, while Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has the dubious distinction of being the last on this overall list covering 13 circles.

While Reliance Cellular and Idea follow at the third and fourth positions in this overall list across 13 circles, Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom form the rear end of this list at 11th and 12th positions respectively, according to a TNS statement.

The final tally for the top five performers among individual operators has Hutch leading in Gujarat, followed by three operators from Madhya Pradesh -- Idea, Reliance Infocomm and BSNL.

TNS -- a global provider of market information -- collects, analyses and interprets information for better understanding of customer requirements.

In the case of GSM services providers, TNS found customers to be satisfied with the "ability to make and receive calls in any part of the city," the release said, adding "however the service providers have fallen short in meeting customer expectations when it comes to coverage within buildings, in basements or in lifts."

The customers still seem peeved with the amounts they have to pay for local and STD calls, TNS said.

"The cellular industry has performed below average in various aspects related to customer care/helpline," it added.

These includes 'time taken before someone attends to you', 'their ability to resolve complaints and queries in the first instance', and 'overall time taken to resolve complaints' amongst others.

In the case of CDMA customers, performance of the network is a key driver for building customer relationships as well. While the subscribers seem satisfied with most aspects of the network 'coverage while roaming' is something subscribers have to grapple with and is leading to discontent, the survey said.

"The subscribers of CDMA services have a positive corporate image of their service provider particularly when it comes to 'a company that is financially strong' and 'being a company that is credible and you can trust'," it said.