YONKERS, N.Y.-Wireless carriers struck out for a fourth straight year in the annual survey of cellular service and phones conducted by independent evaluator Consumer Reports. Cingular Wireless L.L.C. acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. came under particularly harsh criticism because of problems reported by former AWS customers.
Only 47 percent of the 50,515 survey respondents in 18 metropolitan areas reported being either satisfied or very satisfied with their cell phone service. The magazine gave cellular phone service a score of 67, essentially the same as last year’s score of 66. A score of 100 would mean that all participants were completely satisfied; 80 would mean an average customer was very satisfied, and 60 would reflect somewhat satisfied customers. Typical complaints included static, blocked called and lack of service.
“Despite fierce competition among carriers and cell towers seemingly sprouting up overnight in many places, cell phone service isn’t getting any better,” the magazine reported.
Verizon Wireless kept its top survey ranking for most metropolitan markets and was Consumer Report’s pick as the best national carrier. T-Mobile USA Inc. took second, followed by Sprint Nextel Corp.; Cingular trailed behind. For the first time, regional carriers U.S. Cellular Corp. and Alltel Corp. made the list with U.S. Cellular performing well in Chicago and Alltel performing well in Phoenix.
Sprint Corp. acquired Nextel Communications Inc. shortly before Consumer Reports’ survey went out, so they were evaluated as separate carriers in this year’s survey. Sprint earned middling marks and Nextel received low customer satisfaction scores in the survey.
Consumer Reports noted that more than half of the Cingular customers who participated in the survey were former AWS customers, and customers who kept their old AWS phones were far less satisfied with their service than those who bought new Cingular phones.
In addition to carrier rankings, Consumer Reports also asked customers to rate handsets. Motorola Inc.’s E815 was rated top for Verizon Wireless’ network. The PalmOne Inc. Treo 650 headed up the list of Sprint Nextel phones, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s e335 garnered the highest ranking of GSM phones.
