Consumer Reports ranks Verizon best, AT&T worst among US carriers
Consumer Reports on Tuesday revealed the results of its annual survey of US carriers, which found Verizon ranking highest and AT&T coming in last among America's four largest wireless providers.
This year is not the first time that AT&T ranked last in the Annual Cell Service Provider Survey, as the carrier has struggled for years with poor consumer perception in the face of coverage woes. Last year, the survey similarly found that AT&T fared poorly across the board, earning the worst possible score in all categories related to value, service and customer support, except for the "texting" service category.
Verizon maintained its place atop the big four U.S. carriers this year, though the nation's largest wireless provider was followed closely in the rankings by Sprint. Both Verizon and Sprint began offering Apple's iPhone, ending a years-long exclusive arrangement between Apple and AT&T.
Coming in third in the Consumer Reports rankings was T-Mobile, which was said to have rated "significantly better" than fourth-place AT&T. Earlier this year, AT&T announced an agreement to acquire T-Mobile for $39 billion, but AT&T withdrew its application to the Federal Communications Commission after the deal faced antitrust scrutiny.
"Our survey indicates that subscribers to prepaid and smaller standard-service providers are happiest overall with their cell-phone service," said Paul Reynolds, electronics editor for Consumer Reports. "However, these carriers aren?t for everyone. Some are only regional, and prepaid carriers tend to offer few or no smart phones. The major carriers are still leading options for many consumers, and we found they ranged widely in how well they satisfied their customers."
The Consumer Reports poll was based on a survey of more than 66,000 subscribers about their service and customer support experience with U.S. wireless carriers. The full report, available in the January 2012 issue of the consumer advocacy group's magazine, has carrier ratings for 22 metropolitan markets.
AppleInsider has also offered its own in-depth look at coverage and data speeds using the iPhone 4S on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Tests showed that AT&T offered the fastest speeds and Verizon had the best 3G coverage. The tests also demonstrated service issues with Sprint, though that carrier remains the only option in the U.S. for customers who want an iPhone with an unlimited data plan.
This year is not the first time that AT&T ranked last in the Annual Cell Service Provider Survey, as the carrier has struggled for years with poor consumer perception in the face of coverage woes. Last year, the survey similarly found that AT&T fared poorly across the board, earning the worst possible score in all categories related to value, service and customer support, except for the "texting" service category.
Verizon maintained its place atop the big four U.S. carriers this year, though the nation's largest wireless provider was followed closely in the rankings by Sprint. Both Verizon and Sprint began offering Apple's iPhone, ending a years-long exclusive arrangement between Apple and AT&T.
Coming in third in the Consumer Reports rankings was T-Mobile, which was said to have rated "significantly better" than fourth-place AT&T. Earlier this year, AT&T announced an agreement to acquire T-Mobile for $39 billion, but AT&T withdrew its application to the Federal Communications Commission after the deal faced antitrust scrutiny.
"Our survey indicates that subscribers to prepaid and smaller standard-service providers are happiest overall with their cell-phone service," said Paul Reynolds, electronics editor for Consumer Reports. "However, these carriers aren?t for everyone. Some are only regional, and prepaid carriers tend to offer few or no smart phones. The major carriers are still leading options for many consumers, and we found they ranged widely in how well they satisfied their customers."
The Consumer Reports poll was based on a survey of more than 66,000 subscribers about their service and customer support experience with U.S. wireless carriers. The full report, available in the January 2012 issue of the consumer advocacy group's magazine, has carrier ratings for 22 metropolitan markets.
AppleInsider has also offered its own in-depth look at coverage and data speeds using the iPhone 4S on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Tests showed that AT&T offered the fastest speeds and Verizon had the best 3G coverage. The tests also demonstrated service issues with Sprint, though that carrier remains the only option in the U.S. for customers who want an iPhone with an unlimited data plan.
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AppleInsider has also offered its own in-depth look at coverage and data speeds using the iPhone 4S on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Tests showed that AT&T offered the fastest speeds and Verizon had the best 3G coverage. The tests also demonstrated service issues with Sprint, though that carrier remains the only option in the U.S. for customers who want an iPhone with an unlimited data plan.
With all networks, your mileage may vary.
Unfortunately AI's report was based on just a handful of locations and so wasn't an accurate nationwide picture of the situation.
Question, is AT&T worst the same way the iPhone 4 didn't work? Or is it really worst?
Those are two different analyses.
The iPhone 4 handset review was written by the editors of Consumer Reports.
The annual mobile operator report is a broad survey of readers, not the opinions of a few staff writers.
No American mobile operator can be proud of their performance. Verizon is basically a 37" giant in a land of three-foot midgets. I have no idea why there are fanboys of American cellular providers. The mobile service offered by these companies here in America is abysmal and hideously over-priced. Year after year, there's some shuffling in the rankings, but the overall industry has not made any strides in improving customer satisfaction hence the perennially mediocre scores. American cellular industry is right there at the bottom of customer satisfaction, alongside cable TV providers.
So yeah, according to the CR readership, AT&T really is the worst.
This also reminds me of the time CR slammed the Rainbow Cleaning system, which I was associated with in college. This is the vacuum that has a tray of water in the bottom of it. It's an amazing product and cleans better than anything I've ever seen. They trashed it though, because among other things, they tested it on the one thing it couldn't dissolve in the water...baby poweder with lanolin. Ridiculous.
Those are two different analyses.
The iPhone 4 handset review was written by the editors of Consumer Reports.
The annual mobile operator report is a broad survey of readers, not the opinions of a few staff writers.
No American mobile operator can be proud of their performance. Verizon is basically a 37" giant in a land of three-foot midgets. I have no idea why there are fanboys of American cellular providers. The mobile service offered by these companies here in America is abysmal and hideously over-priced. Year after year, there's some shuffling in the rankings, but the overall industry has not made any strides in improving customer satisfaction hence the perennially mediocre scores. American cellular industry is right there at the bottom of customer satisfaction, alongside cable TV providers.
So yeah, according to the CR readership, AT&T really is the worst.
I agree. The way this should really be interpreted is that Verizon is the least bad of all of them.
For me, it's a complete yawner. In my area and the places I use my phone, AT&T is just fine, so I have no reason to change. If I did have a reason to change, I can get the phone I prefer from several different carriers, so it's not a big deal.
I'm no shrill for AT&T but those two things alone hit me as progressive-minded, pro-consumer policies.
Small correction, should say "for NEW customers..."
I have an unlimited iPhone data plan on Verizon. Just added another iPhone last month and they let me keep the unlimited plan for the new phone as well. Seems as long as your account is currently unlimited, you get to keep it.
Shame T-mobile doesn't have iPhone but I've been very happy with my new android phone and I'm paying about half what the service would cost on the big three.
I agree, consumer reports is garbage for cell phone ratings. I recommend no one base their phone purchase decision on Consumer Reports ratings. I have had AT&T Wireless since the late 90's (they became Cingular for a while there), and I have never had any problems with my service (I live in the Mid-Atlantic, DC Region). Consumer Reports is good for some things, like appliances or cars, but their electronics ratings are almost worthless.
I also have some issues with some of CRs testing, mostly that they focus on the low-to-mid range devices. For example, an average user looking for a DSLR might do well to refer to CR, but I'd never rely on them for pro or prosumer level DSLR reviews. I used to subcribe, but I don't any longer. Not because I thought their reviews were bad. They just weren't at the level of detail I wanted and not targeted to my requirements.
But in this case, we are talking about a survey of 66,000 actual customers. As far as I am aware, this is by far the largest survey group of anyone doing studies of the US cell phone industry. So unless you think CR is intentionally manipulating the survey results, this is about as comprehensive as you are going to get. It covers all carriers in all regions of the country (unlike AI's recent article that only looked at a handful of locations on the West Coast).
The only real knock against the CR report is the selection criteria of respondents. It's CRs subscribers. Since techies seem to not like CR (like me and my DSLR example), that may mean the survey results shift away from a techie's priorities. The focus here and on other message boards seems to focus almost entirely on data speeds, but perhaps the survey respondents, on the whole, cared a bit more about making phone calls. It's a customer satisfaction survey, not a technical capabilities analysis. It rates overall satisfaction, and not about picking one or two technically testable criteria and ranking in controlled testing scenarios.
[From personal experience with both ATT and Verizon, and the impression I get from friends and coworkers, the CR survey results roughly reflect reality in my neck of the woods...which is one of the cities CR specifically reports results for. Although I am surprise Sprint ranked above Tmobile, based on what my circle of people say about their service from each.]
At my house, I have great coverage inside or outside. Decent voice quality and reasonably fast data speeds. If I go 2 miles east, I can use the phone outside, but it's less than useless inside.
My wife has the Verizon iPhone 4. I have the AT&T iPhone 4. When we go to our local arena in Stockton to watch hockey, the phone works great outside or near the exterior walls, but is totally unreliable once we're inside watching the game. One second it's working great, the next it doesn't work at all.
My wife's Verizon iPhone works great. It never flinches. When she first got it, we decided to have a race. We each took a picture of each other, then raced to see who's phone would upload to Facebook the fastest. Hers was done in seconds. Mine eventually timed out after several minutes. Keep in mind, when I first started the upload, I had 4 bars on the signal meter.
I would switch to Verizon if I could. There are just too many places where my wife can use her phone that I can't. Unfortunately, it's a company issued phone and they're locked into AT&T. I've been trying to get them to switch, though, since most of the people on our plan have issues with their AT&T iPhones.
The only real knock against the CR report is the selection criteria of respondents. It's CRs subscribers. Since techies seem to not like CR (like me and my DSLR example), that may mean the survey results shift away from a techie's priorities. The focus here and on other message boards seems to focus almost entirely on data speeds, but perhaps the survey respondents, on the whole, cared a bit more about making phone calls. It's a customer satisfaction survey, not a technical capabilities analysis. It rates overall satisfaction, and not about picking one or two technically testable criteria and ranking in controlled testing scenarios.
The fact that the CR readership is non-techie more accurately reflects the real world. There are probably a few techies who participate in the survey and their responses would be blended in. My guess is that CR lops off the top and bottom five or ten percent of scores, so the results are more normalized.
A higher emphasis on calls is understandable, especially because this is a survey of all cellular users, not just those who own smartphones. There are still a lot of people out there with feature phones; data speeds mean very little to these folks.
Moreover, the happiest people from the survey were those using prepaid or smaller standard service providers and thus were far more likely not to be using smartphones (and thus cellular data).
So much for CDMA being inferior to GSM. This study clearly shouldn't be used to claim CDMA is superior but it's impossible to claim the opposite when the top two rankings both go to carriers using CDMA technology.
You know these rankings change sometimes? I think a couple of years ago it was Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint for the big four. I don't think anything could be assumed about GSM or CDMA technology superiority back then or today from a CR survey.
On top of that, the winner this year was Consumer Cellular, an MVNO that actually runs on AT&T's network.
I agree, consumer reports is garbage for cell phone ratings. I recommend no one base their phone purchase decision on Consumer Reports ratings.
The i4S gets the highest rating from Consumer Reports.