Who's best in Feb '03 Consumer Reports....

[rawman]

Verizon .... with a 72 point overall satisfaction rating. Based on 21,944 survey responses of costs, service and problems.

"Verizon is consistently at the top of the ratings. One of the better companies for customer support. No noteworthy service problems"

#2 AT&T - 69 points
#3 Nextel - 67 points
#4 T-Mobile - 67 points
#5 Cingular - 67 points
#6 Sprint - 65 points

No, I don't work for Verizon. I just switched from Cingular, about a month ago, after 9 years - primarily for the Moto T720.

[Vyperz]

It doesn't surprise me to see who's at the bottom of the list...

[AL904a]

I agree with Verizon being number 1, and Sprint being last. However, from my experience with the other carriers, I would rate T-Mobile higher for customer support.

[med1]

2002 U.S. Wireless Industry Services Study: Awardees JD Power and Associates

Award Recipient
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Atlanta Cingular Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Boston AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Charlotte AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Chicago AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Cincinnati Cincinnati Bell
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Cleveland AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Dallas/Ft. Worth Cingular Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Denver Verizon Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Detroit AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Houston Cingular Wireless (Tied with Verizon Wireless)
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Houston Verizon Wireless (Tied with Cingular Wireless )
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Kansas City Verizon Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Las Vegas AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Los Angeles AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Miami/W. Palm Beach AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Minneapolis T-Mobile
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In New York Metro T-Mobile
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Philadelphia AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Phoenix AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Pittsburgh AT&T Wireless (Tied w/Verizon Wireless)
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Pittsburgh Verizon Wireless (Tied w/AT&T Wireless)
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Portland Verizon Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Sacramento AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In San Diego Verizon Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In San Francisco AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Seattle/Tacoma Verizon Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In St. Louis Verizon Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Tampa AT&T Wireless
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Washington/Baltimore AT&T Wireless (Tied w/Verizon Wireless)
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Washington/Baltimore Verizon Wireless (Tied w/AT&T Wireless)

[MountainDog]

Interesting to see that almost all of the JD Powers winners offer service on the 800MHz band in the cities they win. (A few T-Mobile victories buck the trend.) The key to customer satisfaction seems to be to give them service that reaches people inside buildings as well as standing out on a street corner.

[larry]

Good point about the 800 Mhz, but Sprint would have ranked a little higher if they had done the survey today instead of 4 months ago. That's exactly when the Vision fiasco was happening and so it was probably the worst time to rank Sprint.

[tylerdurden]

Originally posted by: MountainDog
Interesting to see that almost all of the JD Powers winners offer service on the 800MHz band in the cities they win.

AT&T won quite a few and they don't have 800MHz in most of those cities.

[MountainDog]

Hmmm. Could be. Last number I saw showed that 8.5 million of AT&T's 10 million subscribers were operating in the 800MHz band, not 1900. But that was in 2000. My understanding is that only their newer cities were built out using 1900, which is why their switch to 1900 GSM is so costly (not merely adding to existing towers but actually having to add new towers to fill in the gaps).

[cryogenic]

AT&T in my area is formerly Suncom, so they're on the 1900 band.... They have no trouble penetrating buildings and I've heard very few complaints about their service, to be honest. If I didn't have a 6340i with Cingular and a 2235 & 270c with US Cellular, I'd probably have an AT&T phone, because their rural coverage around here is outstanding and they offer unlimited N&W on most of their plans. Plus, we still get the option of adding free incoming to our plans, which is really nice. As far as Sprint goes, this must be one of their better markets, as I can't say I know anyone around here who says they absolutely despise Sprint. My roommate has them and has had nothing but good luck from them. Even in-building, it's not much worse than the 800Mhz carriers. He still gets signal in Wal-Mart and some grocery stores. Honestly, I'd say their coverage is probably better than Cingular's around here. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[WirelessBeachBum]

Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users In Charlotte AT&T Wireless

It surprises me that AT&T shows such a high rating in Charlotte, the really dominant carrier in that market is Alltel, they have been there the longest "without any changes" Their Charlotte market was already an alltel market before the merger with 360...the probably have the biggest customer base in that city also....of course that doesn't mean that people "feel satisfied" with them, I find that many people don't like change and find it's easier just to keep the same ol'e thing.

[erub]

Very interesting about Cingular, that they only won in Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta (their home base). I'm from Dallas, although now I'm living in College Station, part of the Houston market. Cingular is the best (although AT&T and Verizon come close) in these markets. I don't really travel much outside of TX, and Cingular is very solid for me (but not perfect), which explains why they have such a high rating in these markets. I should be happy, I guess...now I just need more minutes.