Verizon and Sprint Top 'Consumer Reports' Carrier Ratings, AT&T Lowest

Consumer Reports today announced the results of its consumer satisfaction survey of mobile phone companies in the United States for 2011, with Verizon topping the list and AT&T once again ranking at the bottom.

Of the four major U.S. national cell-phone standard service providers, Verizon again scored the highest in this year’s Ratings, followed closely by Sprint. Survey respondents gave very good scores to Verizon for texting and data service satisfaction, as well for staff knowledge.

T-Mobile was below Verizon and Sprint but continued to rate significantly better than the higher-priced AT&T, which recently withdrew its application to the FCC to merge with its better rival.

Consumer Reports' survey included 66,000 customers, and the magazine's January issue includes both full rankings of nationwide performance and more localized rankings from 22 major metropolitan areas.

AT&T also ranked last in last year's survey, but was the exclusive iPhone carrier in the United States at that time. With Verizon having added the iPhone in February and Sprint coming on board in October, U.S. consumers now have a number of options for iPhone service.

Top Rated Comments

Mochi Hana

154 months ago

I haven't had any major problems with AT&T. Guess it just depends on where you are.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

darbus69

AT&T from the beginning, hardly a glitch, only occasional failed/dropped calls-haters hate, there is no perfect world where everything works perfectly.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

interrobang

I love how these always degenerate into everyone sharing their personal anecdotes. "I have zero problems with Carrier X. I know a dude who has nothing but problems with Carrier Y."

Look, we don't care. Really. Your experience is not representative. My experience is not representative. No one person's experience is representative.

Maybe this is a good survey, maybe it's a flawed survey, but your personal experience is not useful information.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

jayducharme

I too have never had a problem with AT&T. Their customer service has always been friendly and efficient. In my experience, Verizon, on the other hand, has been a PITA to deal with.

NoExpectations

I don't trust surveys

Another unscientific survey from Consumer Reports where unconfirmed participants compare apples to oranges. AT&T has far more iPhone users than the rest of the providers combined (many on this survey do not even support the iPhone).

Apple customers are probably the most demanding. How can they compare an iPhone user on one network to a dumb phone user on the other?

The following studies are much more scientific. It compares the same iPhone 4s across all carriers. They reach a completely different conclusion based on facts, not opinion.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...on.html&page=1

http://m.minyanville.com/?guid=4714&catid=5

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)