JD Power rates AT&T last in call quality
The results of the recent J.D. Power and Associates wireless industry survey are in, and things could look a bit…better for AT&T. The carrier came in dead last in 4 out of 6 regional categories, and never rose above a 3-out-of-5 rating in any one race. Worse still, the survey includes results culled between February and June, which means that none of the recent iPhone 3G woes have been factored in. Verizon came in first, (as we’ve pointed out) followed by Alltel, with Sprint and U.S. Cellular coming in a tied 3rd and T-Mobile securing a 4th place finish. Beyond AT&T’s abysmal performance, this clearly indicates that, at least when it comes to call quality, CDMA still reigns supreme. Perhaps this should serve as a wake-up call to the GSM giants to shore up their networks and provide a real increase in call quality and coverage. How’s that sound?
Tags: Alltel, AT&T, Call Quality, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon
AT&T’s abysmal network is finally getting the reputation it deserves. I have had nothing but dropped calls, blocked calls and no service in areas their online coverage shows perfect service. And that is outdoors! Hope they get their act together and realize their problems are in fact real.
Seems Sprint is really making a turn around!
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Well i don’t know WTF AT&T did during the data outage last week but my 3G iphone has been running solid as a rock since then, before i couldn’t even connect to the network not even to get emails
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I don’t know what to think. I’ve been around the block in terms of carriers and I’ve always had the best audio qualities on a GSM phone. Worst one was actually Sprint. Best one (current one) is T-Mobile. I will admit that here in Virginia (just outside of DC) I’ve been answering my calls and find that I cannot hear people the first time I answer. So, don’t call me, give me your number and I’ll call you! Seriously, that’s what I’ve resorted to saying…
How about other people’s experiences?
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I’m highly skeptical of this survey, even if it is the overly rated J.D. Power and associates. I travel all over the U.S. and my personal ATT consistently gets better coverage than my business’s Verizon service, especially in rural areas of the Midwest where I am lucky to get one bar on my brand new CDMA piece of shit (BB 8830).
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That sounds right on the money. But do you honestly expect the carrier who rates worst in customer satisfaction and call quality to step up their game and do something about it? Please, att only cares about the end profit…and screwing over all the customers they have.
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Call quality is such a subjective measure, and depending on where you’re at, the underlying technology may not matter.
CDMA has the ABILITY to be clearer than GSM, but at its worst, can sound terrible in comparison. It all depends on the traffic; If a GSM’s tower is maxed out, you simply can’t make a call.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to your phone, regardless of the technology your carrier uses.
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I’ve used nearly every phone Verizon had to offer until I did the big switch to the iPhone on AT&T about 8 months ago. I couldn’t be happier with my switch. The difference in signal strength is not that noticeable, but if I have 1 bar on the iphone, I can call. If I have less than 3 on Verizon it will be spotty or unable to call. I have had more “your call can’t be completed as dialed” messages on the iphone than I did with Verizon, but AT&T isn’t “officially” supported in my area (western NC). They have towers here, but unless they cover some percentage of the population, they don’t “officially” support it. I only have Edge data, which is quite comparable if not a bit faster than the 1X we had before. I have been told that AT&T doesn’t work as well in the back woods areas around here, but I don’t travel back out of population too often, so I’ve been unable to personally test that. I do know that AT&T works better inside buildings than Verizon does. So I’m not sure how they tested, but in my opinion, AT&T is at least as good as Verzion for call out quality, and MUCH better about dropped call quality in my area. I used to have a LOT more dropped calls on Verizon.
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I live in Columbus Ohio. My iphone on AT&T works great. Ironically when I went to Chicago for Lollapalooza I had little to reception anywhere in the city. Weak sauce AT&T, weak. When I was on T-mobile all of my phones worked every where…. weak weak weak weak weak weak AT&T
…and if it weren’t for the iphone I would never switch to the overpriced black hole that is AT&T’s network.
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Huh. I’m confused by these results. I recently switched to AT&T and (data issues over the past few months notwithstanding) I’ve found the voice quality to be the best I have ever experienced, anywhere.
With T-Mobile I was very disappointed, not so much with sound quality (which was just OK) but with what I found to be abysmal coverage in NYC.
Because I am on the road a lot for biz, I wanted a device/provider who would be ideal for long client calls where voice quality and coverage would never need to enter my mind. (”Can you hear me now” is totally unacceptable when talking to clients, IMO.) All other features were incidental.
After much research, I went with AT&T and, for various uses, have the LG Vu, Curve 8310 and iPhone 3G.
The Vu provides me (and my callers) with hands-down, the absolute best voice quality I have ever experienced on a cell phone. I could do client calls for hours and never worry about sounding warbled or robotic. The BlackBerry is an exceptionally close second.
The iPhone 3G voice quality, for me, is damned good, but not quite at the level of the Vu.
In fairness, I have not used VZW in two years, and it’s also possible that I just used bad phones with TMO and my universe of comparison is just small. But I’ve never been as happy with a provider/series of phones as I am with AT&T (again, net of the data issues.)
Hope this helps.
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I was actually expecting this with T-Mobile as past results they ranked higher in most regions. (Althoguh not #1) But since they’re upgrading their network in a number of markets, I’ll bet that effects current users. Curious that the company that spends the most on advertising the “fewest dropped calls” comes in last but it all comes down to personal experience, type of handset, call-volume/data traffic and even the terrain and weather. At least we a number of carriers to try out if need be instead of just one like some countries.
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same here. i’m in MD (just outside DC) and have had the same issue for the past few weeks. I just try to call them back when it happens.
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Where on Earth do you go that T-Mobile works everywhere? I don’t know a single person who is happy with their T-Mobile service. Interesting. BTW, in my experience VZW and ATT reception are quite comparable (excellent where I am), but that may just be me. I doubt it though ; )
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I currently have both Verizon and AT&T, the VZW is a personal RAZR and AT&T is my work Blackberry, I travel quite a bit all around the country and the world. In the US I have to carry both phones because my AT&T phone either has no service or drops calls pretty frequently, I use the VZW phone as my backup because it always seems to have coverage even in remote places like the Grand Canyon. AT&T seems to lack even basic signal in places like downtown Washington, DC.
I feel call quality is more dependent on the phone and the Moto just sounds clearer than the BB.
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Their TV Commcerials sounds like AT&T is #1 in all of the above.
What’s JD’s criteria to judge this and where did they perform the testing?
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@cobald75
You need to read the fine print on AT&T advertisements, “best Global coverage”
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how does at&t have the best global coverage? can I be covered with them even in belguim when my phone isnt unlocked? To my knowledge no.
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I had Verizon with no complaints. I now have AT&T (iphone) and I believe it is even better. My reception in the metro Detroit area is excellent and the call clarity is much improved over any phone I previously owned.
Now I have T-Mobile with my work phone, and that is a whole other abysmal story…
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The thing is you don’t have to wait to hear it from JD Power, you can ask my friends. Some of them have At&t and they tell me it sucks. The ones that have Verizon say they have no problems and neither do i.
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Yeah this whole “best global coverage” is BS. Why would most of AT&T’s customer care if they can have coverage in another country while paying a huge per minute roaming fee? The people that DO want to travel will already know they can when they add the discount plan for roaming.
I switched to AT&T recently and coverage in San Diego has NOT been great and 3G speeds are a wash. Sometimes I’m on EDGE, sometimes on 3G, sometimes on 3G I feel like I’m on EDGE.
I was at a concert last week and it was even worse. Thousands of people around me made calls impossible, SMS barely worked and forget about data. I don’t think the Verizon people were suffering, and I don’t remember ever having problems with T-Mobile at a concert, at least I had EDGE.
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ATT 3G is bad in NYC, very slow, and has some dropped calls, this doesn’t happen much with T-Mobile 3G
and what the HELL the data was dead last Thursday?!
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@Jimmy
Actually, yes your AT&T phone will work fine in Europe, I do it all the time, you will be roaming but the phone will work and signal in Europe is excellent.
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Must be in the major metro areas. Never had a problem in my neck of the woods (south west Missouri). 3G, and maybe 1 out of 100 dropped calls. I ALWAYS had problems with Alltel, which we jokingly called DROPTEL. Of course, this was 7 years ago when I switched from Alltel to At&t wireless, then bought out by Cingular, switched from Blue(at&t wireless) to Orange(Cingular), then bought out by AT&T or however it was merged.
Never really had an issue. One or two glitches when they turned on 3G, but that was it.
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oh thanks for clearing that up BVD. is it safe to say the same can be done with t-mobile?
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Jimmy
as long as your phone is unlocked, you can use whatever GSM service you want
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@Jimmy
Yes, I’ve done it with T-Mobile as well, any phone with GSM will work. Be aware that international roaming charges can be very expensive.
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