This survey relies on customer perceptions and appears to lump Sprint/Nextel customers into one group, but it might be useful. It at least used a relatively large sample: J.D. Power: Call quality differs greatly by region By Kelly Hill Sep 7, 2006 WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.—Strong regional differences in call quality among carriers showed up in the latest J.D. Power and Associates consumer survey, with no carrier dominating nationally. The company also noted that the number of calls made from inside buildings exceeded the number of calls made from outside—and the difference is affecting customer experiences. Verizon Wireless placed either first or tied for first place in three regions of the country, and both T-Mobile USA Inc. and Alltel Corp. placed or tied for first in two regions. U.S. Cellular Corp. took first place for call quality in the North Central region for the second year running. Verizon Wireless was the clear winner in the Northeast and edged out Sprint Nextel Corp. in the Mid-Atlantic region, then ended up in a three-way tie for first in the Southeast with Alltel and T-Mobile USA. Alltel also garnered its first stand-alone win in the Southwest, with subscribers “reporting fewer problems with echoes and timely voice message notification,” according to the survey. Along with the first-place tie in the Southeast, T-Mobile USA placed first in call quality in the West; however, the carrier was on the bottom rung in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. The survey was based on responses from 27,151 wireless users in March, April, June and July of this year. J.D. Power said it examined seven problem areas reported by customers: dropped/disconnected calls, static/interference, connection on the first try, voice distortion, echoes, and timely voice and text message notifications. According to the survey, wireless users made 51 percent of their calls indoors, up from 47 percent in 2005. About 29 percent of calls were made from home, a slight increase from 2005’s figure of 27 percent. Mobile calls from vehicles decreased from 31 percent last year to 27 percent this year. “It is clear that carriers need to manage their networks to reflect the specific usage patterns of their customers in order to provide the best possible call quality experience,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. Parsons added that “carriers that offer superior network quality will improve their likelihood of attracting new customers and will increase customer retention …. as customers experiencing at least one call-quality problem are three times more likely to indicate they ‘definitely will’ switch carriers in the future.” Despite Cingular’s multi-billion dollar network investments and its ad campaign about having the fewest dropped calls, the J.D. Power survey ranked the wireless operator at or below the industry average in call quality in all six U.S. regions. Sprint Nextel did slightly better, falling at or below the industry average in four regions and performing best in the Mid-Atlantic (second place) and West (fourth place) regions. However, wireless service from Qwest Communications International Inc.—which operates on Sprint Nextel’s network—somehow managed to outrank its host network in call quality in the West, placing second with an index ranking three points higher than Sprint Nextel’s.
I find the part where as customers experience at least 1 call quality problem they move into the "definitely Will" switch carriers catagory, and it makes you wonder what the answers were structured like. I am sure the other carriers are going to run with this to try & quiet Cingular's ad campain.
Yeah, that part makes the customers' opinions seem pretty dodgy - or maybe the questions. But I guess the flip-side is that perceptions count more than data sometimes.
Oh please. Qwest uses Sprint's network so there shouldn't be any difference. That goes to show you that people are predjudice against Sprint and that could be why they never come in first.
The answer may be in looking carefully at where Qwest uses Sprint's network. Sprint may have done better in the overlapping areas but got hit in other geography as divided up by J.D. Power. Also affiliates may be killing Sprint. In the part of Michigan where I live, calls on the Sprint network sound terrible but it is run by IPCS. Perhaps Qwest is mostly selling service in areas that are run by Sprint instead of an affiliate.
Since Larry posted his obligatory response, I'll post mine I'm hopeful this will quiet the Cingular marketing machine, but I doubt it Here's the full release with charts: http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pdf/2006158.pdf
I don't believe that Qwest has any markets where the Sprint service in the same market is run by an affiliate. So that theory doesn't hold up. But yes Qwest doesn't serve each and every market in the West that Sprint does. California is the good example of this.
After viewing the charts it appears like many markets are very close. But some I just find to be not very believable. For instance why did T-Mobile finish so much higher in the West than Cingular? Don't they still use the same network? I was under the impression that Cingular still had the rights to use T-Mobile's network until 2008 or something. Sprint did surprisingly well in the mid Atlantic region. I would have expected them to have done better in the Southeast than mid Atlantic. I feel that's Qwest's 2nd place ranking in the West is the true representation of Sprint's CDMA service here. Sprint's own ranking could have been brought down by the IDEN service that might be factored into things. Also how can Cingular claim to have the fewest dropped calls when they did kind of bad in this survey? Doesn't quite add up and I hope that they are forced to change that ad soon. In the meantime I'll keep being amused by Sprint's anti-Cingular campaign.
Larry, that was exactly my point. Sprint runs a better network than the affiliates and therefore it should be no surprise that Qwest came out a little better on the survey. I contend that Sprint's showing was hurt by the affiliates.
Even though Cingular is still able to roam on T-Mobile's network in CA for a reduced roaming rate until 2008 or something, they have desperately been trying to force updates to customers phones and trying to get them off the T-Mobile network and on to Cingular's network in CA so they don't have to pay T-Mobile as much for roaming(...we've seen Cingular pull a lot of moves lately trying to get people to roam less on nationwide, ALLOVER network plans). That is why we have heard so many complaints from Cingular users in CA lately- the old AT&T network was not as well built out in most parts of CA and with the strain of millions and millions more customers on the network they are having a lot of problems.
Other then theNorth East, North Central & West Cingular wasn't that far off & was at or just above average for the other area's. It does seem most carriers are close in most of the markets & do feel Sprint/Nextel could have been hurt by Nextel users in some markets, I know around here Nextel isn't as good as other parts of the country. I am also suprised at how well T-Mobile keeps doing in different parts of the country. It just goes to show, different areas carriers can have that big of a difference in opinion. Again, I would like to see the questions & how they were structured with the answers, to get an idea why they said if someone has just 1 problem with a call, they are 3 times more likely to switch. And you right Andy, I have not liked the tactics Cingular has been pulling lately & have a lesser opinion of them as a carrier, I know if the time comes they want to force me off my Blue plan, I will be looking at options with other carriers to see if it's worth switching. (I just hate the idea of getting rid of a phone with a SIM card).
Right (actually the Cingular and TM agreement is in CA and NV) but in the JDPower survey, the "West" region was 16 states! (see the list in the link) so T-Mobile and Cinglular have different experiences.
As I understand it Cingular has the right to use their legacy network 310-17(0)which they sold to T-Mobile for a period of up to three years while cingular is in the process of transitioning all their subscribers to the old AT&T Wireless so called "blue" 310-38(0) network. During this transition period some cingular subscribers still have access to the old legacy network while others have already switched to the "blue" network. Eventually all cingular subscribers will be off the old legacy network. I've heard mixed reports on how people like/don't like the "blue" network as compared to the old network. Some people think the old network performs better and others think that the new network is better.
