New study says Sprint has the fewest dropped calls

Re: Sprint No. 1 in reliability, study finds

Isn't this describing consumer reports and jd powers?

 

Re: Sprint No. 1 in reliability, study finds

Yes & no, I don't think Consumer reports does it will different people and an equal # of different carrier users in different regions.
As for JD Powers, I also don't think they get different people for each study, I have done all of the JD Powers studys for cell phones, so they don't appear to be getting a different customer base each time they do their studies.

The other factor is doing it with the group for a 1 month period with a log for people to use & enter it weekly, I know they do this with TV watching surveys & some other ones, that I have done.

 

Re: Who really has the fewest dropped calls?

Of course they are in the same area. Zoning regulations usually lead to cell sites being in the same vicinity. It is very cost efficient to utilize the other network's locations to co-locate. Hence the term synergy and a large part of the value in the SN merger.

 

Re: Sprint No. 1 in reliability, study finds

A flaw in a study would need to indicate a bias toward one conclusion or another. Dropped calls due to dead batteries,accidentally hitting end etc. is neutral since that may occur with any user/carrier with equal probability. In fact, I don't see why any other reason for a re-dial would be higher than any other carrier other than network problems. I'd love to hear someone's argument that one carrier has more dead batteries or bad hand/eye coordination than another.

 

One intersesting thing about this "test" ....
It didn't "actually" measure any "actual" dropped calls ... According to the 1st post ,
They counted all "duplicate calls" as a dropped call ... meaning if you called a number, terminated the call, & then re-dialed the same number within 2 minutes (with no other calls in-between), that original call to the number was counted as a "dropped" call, regardless of weather it actually dropped or not. Simply calling someone back a minute or 2 after hanging up counted as a "dropped call" in this study.
Conversely, if you really did drop a call & didn't bother to call them back, that was not counted as a dropped call at all.
This could explain the high numbers, & could possibly skew "better" results to carriers with poorer coverage - for example , you are at the "fringe" & drop a call, & you can't actually dial the person back since you have no more signal - all "those" dropped calls would not be counted in this study.

 

Re: Sprint No. 1 in reliability, study finds

If you are bringing erroneous data to the pool of information, then the results can be skewed regardless. Even though there is an equal probability of those things happening on any carrier, that's not always the case. You can't assume it will even out in the end. The point is the study is including bad data and there's also a probability that bad data can skew the results.

Also, as MeatChicken was pointing out above, many actual dropped calls may not have been counted for different reasons. Sometimes, when a wireless call drops, one of the parties may decide to call from another phone and that will constitute a call to a different number which will not be counted as a dropped call. This will also skew the results.

Also, in the case of a call between a Cingular user and a T-Mobile user, if the call drops, how do they know which carrier to blame it on? There's no way to know this unless you have information from the switch saying the reason why the call terminated, and sometimes even that doesn't tell you the answer so you would need to know what the users circumstances of the moment (traveling, pressing buttons, signal level, etc.) in order to know why the call ended. And then what about a call between a cell and a VoIP or Landline user? Sometimes someone on the landline end can get disconnected for many reasons, bad cord, cordless phone ran out of battery, VoiP lost connection to the Internet, etc. So all that, while not very likely, can add up to the skew percentage. When you take a large sample, all these minor things can add up and have to be taken into consideration.

Regardless of what they say, without information from the switches saying the reason why the calls ended, or without an actual driving test, it is very unreliable to claim validity of any study. I bet if they take call samples using the same method over several different 6-month periods, they will come up with different carriers having the lowest dropped call rate. Sometimes it will be Verizon, sometimes it will be T-Mobile, sometimes it will be Cingular and sometimes it will be Sprint. So if Verizon wants to jump on the bandwagon, all they have to do is search for the correct 6-month period and they can also say they have the fewest dropped calls.

 

That report is crap. What did the team drive test 3 towers in the wide open with flat terrain. Obviously the team did not go into a building or off a major freeway. I would like to see and independant drive team make call off a 1900 wireless carrier while in a carport or leave a major US highway.

 

I wounder is Sprints sub contract Mom and Pop cell companies using Sprints name where tested. The sub in Northern Michigan is called IPCS and some of their towers are 10-15 miles apart and they have almost no coverage off of the main highways. I definately wounldnt call this a legit report.

 

Sorry double post.

 

Im not down playing Sprint at all, Im just laughing about the claims. We hire a sub company to do the same thing. When they drive test areas they focus on main population and main road coverage. I work on cell towers for a living and I relize coverage is important no matter where you are at, not just a big city or a highway. There are roads in between cities and highways and I believe all of these areas should be tested to give accurate results.

I think these results are over inflated for a company, regardless of their technology or what ever name they use.

My opinion above is based on a technical stand point with no regard to what company it is.

 

I am not so sure about that, the studdy talks about data of calls made by customers and not by the drive by method. I could be wrong but that is how I understood it.

 

IPCS up here makes a bad name for Sprint. Alot of there towers only point up and down the highways and they use alot of repeaters instead of real cell site gear. IPCS has actually tried to sue sprint over the Nextel stores selling Sprint service. All of the Nextel tower trucks have been relabled with Sprint on the sides. The rumor going around is Sprint is looking to buy out IPCS.

My grandma has IPCS and says it sucks pretty bad.

 

Hardly. Anyone can make these "statistics" show anything they choose. The truth of the matter is that these statements are at worst suspect. At best they are manipulating data to suit their cause. Unless you have absolutely equal tests there's no real way that they can authoritatively say that "X" carrier has fewer dropped calls. Do they use the same phones on all tests? Probably not. Do they make all these tests at the same time of day? Again, probably not. Do they make these tests in exactly the same area? Even if they do there's no way that the tests can be absolutely equal since not all carriers broadcast from the same location. Boasts of these "fewest" is just another marketing gimmic that cannot often even be proven.

 

We're getting into technicalities here, but to me a statement "<insert your carrier's name here> has fewest dropped calls" will be interpreted by most people to mean the actual number of dropped calls in real life, not in some driving/lab test. So the study in the original post (done on real call data) would've addressed that better than a driving test, had they been able to tell which calls where actually dropped due to network congestion/failed hand-off/etc. rather than instituting an arbitrary criteria of "successive calls to the same numbers".

 

Wirelessly posted (MOT-E815_/00.62 UP.Browser/6.2.3.4.c.1.106 (GUI) MMP/2.0)

Telekom is right. I believe the only way that a company can legitimately claim the fewest dropped calls marketing schtick is to honestly_show the data they each have and compare, which they will never do. They all know how many dropped calls they have...

 

Which is nothing but silly since you're never going to get a totally equal test since there are too many variables involved and the utter impossibility of having a completely equal test. I don't see how you could make an absolute test without some bias towards whatever you are wishing to see as the best. These claims of "fewest" are suspect no matter who makes the claim (boast.)

 

The one company that drive tests networks the best is a company called Telephia (no I don't work for them). They give statistics like dropped calls, blocking, call set-up failures, voice quality, etc. If they say you have the best dropped call percentage in a metro area then they usually have the data to back it up. They also test all the carriers in the market they are driving, so they give comprehensive data to the carriers. They also do alot of market research.

 

That's why I am against the tests in general. The companies must have the data — AT&T Wireless used to give credits for repeat calls within a minute of the dropped call — and that credit would only show up if you redialed within a minute of an actual dropped call, if you ended the call and dialed again, you wouldn't get the credit. To me that means that the call data somehow contains the necessary information to determine whether it was dropped or not. If all companies released all that call data for analysis it would be possible to answer the question of who has the fewest dropped calls, the fewest percentage of dropped calls and so on — it'll be pure statistical analysis, and then everyone would be free to interpret those results the way they see fit. However the notion that the companies will provide that data for analysis seems idealistic at best I'm sure some questions would still be left unanswered — what do you do with dropped calls that were dropped because you went into a no-coverage area, but you can argue that a dropped call is a dropped call no matter what the reason was.

 

Re: Who really has the fewest dropped calls?

Are you able to TEXT Vote to
American Idol?

 

What does that have to do with anything?

 

I just did a wireless survey for Telephia on Monday, they did ask about dropped calls, network busy, what type phone I am using, and a lot of information.
They also requested my OLAM login & password as part of their study, I guess they review your calling habits and other data for research in the study's. (yes I did give them the info, since I know they are a reputable company from posts here).

They do seem to be very big in researching Wireless carriers.

 

I also know that is not the correct way to view things. I've always seen those "fewest dropped calls" claims with skepticism, no matter which carrier they come from. I only know that when Cingular used T-Mobile's network here in NJ, I had fewer dropped calls than when Cingular started using AT&T Wireless network, but that was because of the lack of coverage on the T-Mo network and so I would know not to use my phone because it was frustrating and I would just keep my phone powered off and used landlines unless I was driving. (Kinda defeats the purpose of paying a cell phone bill, doesn't it?) But after they started using the AT&T Wireless network, although I immediately gained coverage everywhere, there was a period during the merger where many upgrades were done and dropped calls happened frequently. As of the last 12 months, Cingular has improved NJ to the point where it is very hard to get a dropped call anywhere I go in north NJ. To their credit, T-mobile has always performed great in NJ for highway driving, which is what they are known for anyways.

Nobody can claim having the fewest dropped calls constantly as that varies too much depending on the season, the area and network conditions. As I said before, you can be the carrier with the fewest dropped calls in my neck of the woods today, but that doesn't mean that will be true tomorrow or by the time the highway billboards are made and posted all over.

I couldn't agree more.

This is absolutely true. Every company knows how many dropped calls they have without making any study or driving test. It's all stored in their switch logs. But we all know they are never going to release that info.

 

Right about that, I see reports daily on what my towers are doing.