Sprint’s attempt to kick start customer growth took a hit today as the carrier found itself at the bottom of Consumer Reports latest ranking of domestic wireless providers, displacing previous door mat AT&T Mobility.
The rankings, which were based on a survey of more than 58,000 wireless customers, scored mobile virtual network operator Consumer Cellular as the highest overall rated operator in the survey. Consumer Cellular runs across AT&T Mobility’s network and offers no-contract services targeting more mature wireless customers, was the highest overall rated operator in the survey.
Verizon Wireless again was at the top of the list of nationwide operators, a position it found itself in last year as well. Consumer Reports noted that Verizon Wireless was commended for the quality of its data service and “some aspects” of customer care.
Regional operator U.S. Cellular was No. 2 in the ranking, just out-scoring Verizon Wireless. T-Mobile US came in at No. 2 among nationwide operators a mere one point ahead of AT&T Mobility. Consumer Reports noted that both operators posted middling results, though AT&T Mobility was cited as the only carrier to receive a top rating in reliability for its “4G” service.
For Sprint, which was second among nationwide operators last year, the drop is just the latest in a string of challenges facing the carrier. Sprint late last month posted yet another quarter of large customer defections, which it attributed to the recent shutdown of its iDEN operations as well as network challenges tied to its ongoing Network Vision upgrade program. The carrier singled out network quality issues it was having in some larger markets, like Chicago, where customers were experiencing an impact on network quality.
“In cities like Chicago, where our Network Vision build is more than 70% complete, we are seeing significant improvements, not only in churn, but also in gross adds, compared to earlier months when customers were experiencing the pardon our dust phase of our Network Vision deployment,” Sprint CEO Dan Hesse noted during the carrier’s Q3 conference call.
Consumer Reports, never one to mince words, said Sprint received “dismal marks this year for value, voice, text and ‘4G’ reliability.”
The carrier is hoping for better days ahead as it recently announced its Sprint Spark program that is designed to provide faster and more extensive LTE services to consumers beginning later next year as well tapping into new funding and support being provided by Japan’s Softbank, which acquired a controlling interest in Sprint earlier this year.
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