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Consumer Affairs

AT&T 'Wins' Worst Cell Phone Derby

Consumer Reports rates U.S. Cellular tops in service, ahead of Verizon Wireless

12/07/2010 | By | ConsumerAffairs.com | Cell Phones & Smart Phones
Bedraggled by broadband-hogging iPhones, AT&T is now the worst-rated cell-phone service carrier according to a new survey of Consumer Reports readers.  U.S. Cellular
, a regional carrier that provides service in 26 states, beat out the long-standing top provider Verizon Wireless with outstanding marks for value, voice service and customer support. 

More than half of the AT&T customers surveyed owned an iPhone, the Apple smart-phone that is currently available exclusively from AT&T.  Consumer Reports data, reflecting all versions of the phone, found that iPhone owners were much less satisfied with their carrier and rated data service (Web and e-mail) lower than owners of smart phones on other carriers that, like the iPhone, have a host of apps to encourage heavy data use.

"Our survey suggests that an iPhone from Verizon Wireless, which is rumored, could indeed be good news for iPhone fans, said Paul Reynolds, Electronics Editor for Consumer Reports.

The consensus prediction among tech industry bloggers appears to be a January 2011 launch of the Verizon iPhone. Verizon Wireless recently introduced its version of the popular iPad, breaking AT&T's long-held monopoly on Apple products and further fueling speculation that a Verizon iPhone was close behind.

Cynics have predicted that the addition of tens of thousands of iPhones to the Verizon network will quickly drag it down to AT&T's performance level but others note that Verizon already supports a variety of data-hungry smartphones, including those powered by Google's Android operating system, which is seen as comparable to the iPhone in terms of data usage.

58,000 responses

In this year's version of its annual survey on cell-phone carriers, more than 58,000 ConsumerReports.org subscribers weighed in about their service and customer support experiences with contract and no-contract providers. 

AT&T was the only carrier whose scores for overall satisfaction dropped significantly since last year.   

Verizon Wireless remains among the better performers, but Sprint has pulled even with the carrier in overall satisfaction.  The carrier actually even scored better than Verizon in some aspects of customer service, a remarkable turnaround from past years when that was a weak point for the company.  T-Mobile was only slightly behind those two carriers in overall satisfaction.

The full article also features carrier Ratings in 23 metropolitan markets and is in the January 2011 issue of Consumer Reports and atwww.ConsumerReports.org.

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