Consumer Reports Gives AT&T Lowest US Carrier Rank

tekgoblin writes "Consumer Reports has just released results for consumer satisfaction across all US cell phone carriers. The survey covered around 58,000 Consumer Reports subscribers. Over half of the respondents who used AT&T used the iPhone when taking the survey. According to Consumer Reports, iPhone users were less satisfied with AT&T than other users with different phones. An AT&T spokesman responded by citing independent speed tests, as well as higher subscriber numbers and a dropped call rate within 0.1% of the industry leader." Update: 12/07 01:49 GMT by S : Corrected last sentence to indicate the 0.1% dropped call rate statistic is the difference between AT&T and another carrier, not 0.1% overall.

Comments

Dropped call rate of 0.1%?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Look AT&T, if you're going to lie you should at least make it a plausible lie. Nobody who uses AT&T (or has to call people on AT&T) is going to believe your ridiculously low 0.1%.

Re:Dropped call rate of 0.1%?!

[Anonymous Coward]

ridiculously low 0.1%.

...what's your basis of calling it ridiculously low? Do you know the dropped call rate of other companies?

Perhaps 0.1% is very high compared to other companies? Heck, assuming 10 million calls a day, that's 10,000 dropped calls daily!

Anyway, I'm just trying to say the number has no context. If I said my penis was 5,000 flagoogles long, it might *sound* impressive, but maybe a hundred flagoogles is only half of a nord?

Re:Dropped call rate of 0.1%?!

[Matheus]

Bad Summary / RTFA. They say "our dropped call rate is within 1/10 of a percent - the equivalent of just one call in a thousand - of the industry leader." NOT that they have fewer than 0.1% dropped calls.

Now, I know that correlation != causation, but...

[rekenner]

"Over half of the respondents who used AT&T used the iPhone when taking the survey."

at&t isn't that bad

[p51d007]

And when the hoard of iPhone users flood another carrier (Verizon?) when at&t loses its exclusive contract with Apple, maybe two things will happen. 1. The speeds on at&t's network will increase 2. The call quality/service will increase. at&t will have to try harder, to keep customers because you won't have to go there if you want an iPhone. I have been with them for 8 years, never had a problem. It will just be nice to walk into an at&t store and not have to look to see if you accidentally didn't wonder into an Apple store LOL.

Studies mean nothing

[Mishotaki]

If your service sucks and your customers hate you, citing studies and statistics won't make them hate you less...

Duno

[mrsteveman1]

Most of the iPhone users i've talked to say its been just fine on AT&T. I've got an iPhone 4 and it's working great, 3G speeds are plenty fast, and calls haven't dropped at all. Voice sounds bad, and AT&T might be worse in that respect than other carriers, but poor call quality seems to be part of a trend that followed the switch to digital phones, they just sound worse than the older analog ones and definitely worse than landlines.

Most of the AT&T hate seems to be coming from users in large cities like SF and NY. I expect that the signaling issues that TechCrunch and others have reported on that are specific to AT&Ts network are hitting hardest there.

Reminds me of Kitchen Nightmares

[Vrallis]

The response by AT&T reminds me of almost every episode of Kitchen Nightmares. Gordon goes in, finds out the food is shit, and the owners always respond "but the customers all tell us the food is great!" (to which Gordon usually responds "What customers?").

Interpretation: Wireless data plans suck

[dirkdodgers]

If Verizon had the iPhone too, albeit the results would be similar. 2GB is a ridiculous monthly cap. $10 for every additional GB? What is this, 1995? OK, throttle bandwidth as needed to deliver QoS, but don't put an artificial per-month cap on my usage.

The main advantage of having the iPhone on Verizon will be that it will drive down data plan prices and drive up caps.

And $20/month extra for tethering? Really AT&T? Go shove it up your ass.

Their Network is Too Fast

[NicknamesAreStupid]

It is so fast, the bits just fly by before anyone realizes it. Calls are not dropped, they merely end before the subscriber does. The problem is 2G subscribers on a 3G network. Subscribers need to upgrade themselves to 3G. Truth is, no one is nearly fast enough for AT&T. Send them all your money, and they will forgive you.

No, I am not a shill; I just play one on the Internet.

T-mobile

[russotto]

I have T-mobile prepaid. Fewer dropped calls because more often you can't place the call because there's no service at all. On the good side, it's cheap.

Re:Now, I know that correlation != causation, but.

[dumbnose]

I had two different iPhones over two years. I experienced dropped calls all the time. It was awful. I hated AT&T. During this time, I even moved from the East Coast to the West Coast and still had the same poor experience. I was ready to leave AT&T. I had friends on AT&T that didn't have iPhones and they said they had a good experience with AT&T. So, I decided to get a new phone. I got a Samsung Focus running Windows Phone 7. Now, my experience is really good. The network seems fast and reliable. No more dropped call issues. I can't speak for everybody. But, this is my experience. I wish I had changed phones sooner. It would've saved me tons of aggravation.

Re:They'd complain about anything probably.

[hedwards]

Customers that demand good service are too expensive and need to be driven out, didn't you get the memo on that?

Re:They'd complain about anything probably.

[nxtw]

Tens of millions. Big deal. There are 4.6 billion cell phone subscriptions worldwide as of 2009 according to Wikipedia. Actually, that's pretty sad.

Those tens of millions of iPhone subscribers:

• have a high credit rating or the extra cash to put down a deposit
• have enough money to afford a $200+ (subsidized) mobile phone
• have a stable enough income to pay at least $40/mo for voice service and $15/mo for data service, plus taxes

They are among perhaps the top 10% richest and most influential mobile subscribers worldwide. Not the kind of people who barely scrape together the money to top up a prepaid SIM in their Nokia.

Re:their internet / home phone is worse

[Z34107]

Their internet service especially is awful. Ideally, setting up DSL should go something like this:

1. Unpack box, throw away disc.
2. Plug modem into wall.
3. Plug other end of modem into router

How it works with AT&T:

1. Open the DSL modem's management page, expecting to find something useful. Instead, experience a "setup wizard."
2. The "setup wizard" requires Internet Explorer and flash, because the setup wizard has to talk to you. Good thing the instructions are also mostly on-screen, unless you're on a netbook, in which case you're just fucked because 600 vertical pixels just doesn't cut it for AT&T.
3. If you can click on the "next" button from step 2, the setup program will try to download some other setup program, for Lord knows what reason. Unless you're running 64-bit Windows, in which case the x64 installer will just crash. Or unless you're running Linux, in which case you never made it past step 2, neckbeard.
4. Pride wounded, you open the disc, which requires breaking a a seal labeled something along the lines of "open only under the instruction of AT&T support."
5. Rage at the disc, because the setup program on it is password protected.
6. Dig through the directory structure a bit and find an older version of the setup program that died in step 3. This will finally let you finish activating your account with AT&T, and your DSL modem will now finally have service.

If you're like me (easily frustrated and poorly shaven), there's a few optional steps:

1. Immediately call AT&T to cancel because you'd rather eat the business end of an iPhone (you know which end) than give money to anybody who thought any of the above was a good idea.
2. Send back your used modem for the largest deposit I've ever paid for a lump of plastic.
3. Get sent a bill for $150 over what you owe because they lost your modem.
4. Spend a week trying to call their support number. Contrary to what their website and any other department you call will tell you, it's only open until 5:00 in your timezone. (Bonus points for making them call that number themselves and listen to the "we're closed" tape.) (Although you can add services online, you cannot cancel online; imagine that.)
5. Finally get somebody to "find" the modem.
6. Get told to wait for a new, corrected bill.
7. Receive a collections notice in lieu of said new, corrected bill.
8. Call back AT&T during work hours. Play back the recording made of step 6.
9. Pay correct amount over the phone, and then cancel the card.
10. Thank the Almighty God, who makes the Sun orbit the Earth, that your service, bill, and credit check were all in the name of Ranka Lee. (Kira~! ^_>) Let me know if you see her name in a telephone book somewhere; I didn't pay extra to opt out of that.

Can anyone tell me if signing up for their wireless service still requires an acoustic coupler and landline?

Re:Now, I know that correlation != causation, but.

[timeOday]

You bought two iPhones plus the Focus in the space of two years? An iPhone is $400 if you haven't served out your two-year sentence, isn't it? Then about $100/mo for service. I'm just curious how much all that cost?