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?
@mingkee
Just to clarify, your phone doesn’t have to be unlocked to roam in Europe when you are on an American carrier.
just need unlimited roaming?
Your actual results will vary by carrier and where you live. That has always been true. Its a survey. Run the same survey again with different people, you will get different results.
@Jimmy
It’s considered international roaming, different than local roaming. You’ll have to look into international calling plans offered by your carrier.
One other item I forgot to mention is your phone needs to support the GSM frequencies in the country you are going to. Having a quad band phone covers you.
ok thanks BVD. you just cleared up a lot for me
you have to read the small print. For the BEST coverage choose AT&T
Small print: coverage based on global coverage.
AT&T has more global roaming partners and phones that will work globally then VZW.
I used to be on CDMA (USCC). Honestly call quality where i live on ATT is just fine, though ATT does need to tighten up the network!
This sucks.
I can’t go anywhere and sucks to know that ATT sucks so much. Officially.
Verizon is for republicans, I guess I can’t afford good service…LOL! J/K repub’s, well, not so much!
But ATT behind Sprint? Mind-boggling!
For those of you who claim these results on JD Powers, search around for other surveys! You will find the same results, Verizon Wireless ranked #1. Consumer Reports is just another example of the same results. So I guess ALL surveys are wrong or biased, they all have something against At&t right? LOL Face it, Verizon has the best network and At&t has the best phones. I live in downtown Atlanta, I have Verizon, they have At&t, the At&t drops calls EVERY day and the Verizon doesn’t. Simple as that. You can dislike Verizon for many reasons, but you have to give them credit they care about their network. Anyone remember the interview with the CEO of At&t where he says “we are trying to get our network where Verizon’s is” …
Yeah. I have both. I’d been with Verizon for YEARS and got tired of always getting the phone I wanted when they expired on the “up-to-date-technology” list. So now I have the phone I want, but have AT&T call quality to deal with. No doubt about it, as much as I hate Verizon’s nickle ‘n dime practices and their crappy equipment list, their call quality and tech support are second to none. I’m only going to have two phones for a short period of time. IF Verizon doesn’t wake up very soon (like that’s going to happen) then I’ll stick with a phone that I want and can use world wide and then all I will say to Verizon is, “Can you hear me now?”
I have a very difficult time believing that AT&T doesn’t have the best coverage in the Southwest. To be honest, it’s a little annoying because I can’t even go hunting without coverage (that’s everywhere I’ve been in Texas). The only time I have not had coverage was in Southwestern New Mexico, while elk hunting. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I didn’t have to answer business calls. Btw – the same has held true with dropped calls.
To be honest, the only time I have dropped calls is when I’m talking to my 1 friend that has Verizon, and my 2-3 friends that have T-mobile. Sprint seems to work well in metro areas, however (at least in Dallas).
I guess that’s why I can’t believe everything that I read, even apparent surveys taken by the mighty JD (of which I’ve lost a considerable amount of credibility for).
Keep doing what you’re doing AT&T. Come out with some new phones, please.
Actually, in El Paso, TX, T-Mobile has the best reception I’ve found. For the longest time, they were the only one to have service at my house, even though I still live within city limits.
I have found though that I don’t get as good reception as I could with my Curve 8320, which is kind of sad because I thought Blackberrys were known for their reception quality.
But in any case, in Florida, T-Mobile’s not so great. I’m on the brink of switching to AT&T, which here in Florida it seems is top-notch, if it weren’t that only T-Mobile has UMA and for that I’m the only one who has service in one of my university buildings.
I don’t understand how there is so many varying responses. Please tell me this isn’t just fanboyism at its greatest. Verizon pisses me off because of its constant robbery on the bill and their bullshit charges but as far as service is concerned it is top notch. I have also had AT&T back when it was Cingular. The service (at least back then) was horrible. People would always complain that they would have to call me at least twice to get thru. I’m sure it has improved since then but after dealing with my friends who have AT&T, I have pretty much noticed the same things that I remember. Granted it maybe a few dollars cheaper a month but I don’t care enough to buy the iPhone or the Bold. I just want the best call quality possible. People will always rant and rave about which is the best but I’ve been pretty certain over the past 5 years Verizon is the clear cut winner as far as coverage and call quality. AT&T and the other carriers just have better phones to choose from and more phones that can be used when you go overseas.
Anyway I guess in the end its still a very subjective measure. But I personally have to agree and say I think Verizon’s coverage and call quality is better. But their bullshit charges and constant absurd practices make them less than the best customer service company.
i most say i have Verizon & T-Mobile and verizon is the best of the best with everything
I told everybody its time to drop att lame ass! and come to verizon!!!!
I live in Woodland Hills, CA. I was at my local AT&T corp. store this AM. It was a mob site. Everyone in there was complaining about dropping calls and bad voice quality.
As irritated as I was having to wait forever and a day for service, I thought it was so comical how all the store employees would defend the AT&T network blindly and tell customers that they always get full bars and perfect service everywhere like everyone but them were born yesterday.
I’m sure those employees are the same people on these internet forums who act like AT&T is perfect and without blemish….. yada.. yada… yada
I can’t stand Verizon for a lot of reasons, but I must admit when I used them they just worked RELIABLY. I didn’t have to worry about whether or not I would be able to make a call or whether or not I’d get that crappy garbly audio quality on every other call.
Even though T-Mobile has slightly less coverage here, even they were much more reliable in my experience over AT&T.
WHat? I traveled from one end of the country to the other and I had bars most likely 80% of the time. In colorado ATT has bars just about everywhere and I have not had a dropped call since November of last year. Customer service? stop going over your minutes and you wont have to worry bout callin in all the time. Extra charges… usually never happen unless your the one doing it. Honestly, Verizion is straight garbage in the southwest along with sprint.Last time I called sprint I got some guy in India. My phone works when I need it.
wouldnt also matter which type of phone you have as well not just the network?
I was very happy with Sprint service/coverage/quality except their crappy handsets–and some Sunday evening salesperson tried to slam me while I was off contract waiting for the iPhone. iPhone is a good product but I have never experienced worse coverage.
As a former AT&T Subscriber who successfully SUED to get out of their contract because of the worst customer service ever, CONSTANT dropped calls (we could not walk around the house with our phones & we were in a MAJOR metropolitan area supposedly an AT&T stronghold), & constantly disconnecting our phones for non-payment for bills that we’re NOT EVEN DUE YET. Yes AT&T has better phones (I cringe everytime I think about that) but I can honestly say in all good conscience that I would NEVER recommend them to everyone & this report is 100% accurate!!!
Time to consider the source… JD Power has been bashing quality companies for years and using it to promote sub standard products and companies as a result.
Verizon does have a great network, but AT&T’s is as good or better. I travel around the country and the world and rarely have any issues. My friends with Verizon can’t say that in the US let alone in other countries where Verizon has little to no coverage because of a lack of roaming agreements.
I rank JD Powers as last in ranking companies… hell they still rank American cars way to high and bash the Germans everytime they can.
I will take AT&T and BMW all day long.
Well well well…there goes the fanboys and the well-opinionated. You can’t say JD Power just wants to bash AT&T when other surveys by Nielsen and other companies prove the same thing. You don’t even have to argue…just google “best cell phone coverage” and you’ll see what I’m talkin about. Verizon has better call quality and service. AT&T has better phones. That’s the bottom line and personal experiences are really relative that is why there are surveys and polls. If a company wins, they win. Your personal opinion is not going to change the fact that they won and most likely will win again next year because AT&T is too concerned with the Iphone, which also has the same bad call quality/data experience. And David Gray be my guest and switch to AT&T…you’ll be saying “can you hear me now?!” to your friends, not Verizon because they won’t care or be able to hear you from that horrid network, lol.
@ Flip: You must work for AT&T. Your: “I travel around the country…” comments…..
You don’t travel all over the country. You most likely travel to other major cities where service is expected to work as advertised.
I’m not sure what vacuum you live in, but Colorado has HUGE holes in AT&T service sans the populated areas like Denver. In fact, much of the Western US is a no service zone for AT&T except for the big cities. Much of the area is sparsely populated.
@BigVDawgy
You mean to say that Service providers in otther countries built a better GSM Network than AT&T on their home turf? That what it comes down to on the global coverage issue. Rogers up here advertise similar things. Most reliable, least dropped calls etc.