AT&T Claims The #1 Title! ...Of The Worst Phone Carrier

Not exactly an awesome title

Dec 6 2010, 4:53pm CST | by Mark Raby

AT&T Claims The #1 Title! ...Of The Worst Phone Carrier

For the last few years, if you've wanted an iPhone or an iPad you pretty much had to get AT&T. A lot of customers just grin and beat it, but there are more unhappy people there than with any other mobile carrier.

That's according to the latest report from Consumer Reports, which has put AT&T at the distinctive spot many times before.

The consumer advocacy group released its latest data on the mobile industry, ranking all of the major providers on the following categories:

- Voice service
- Texting service
- Data service
- Mobile customer support
- Online customer support
- E-mail customer support
- Knowledge of staff
- Ability to resolve issues
- Overall value

Each metric was given a score of 1 - 5, where 1 is "Worse" and 5 is "Better." Of the nine categories, AT&T received a score of "1" in eight of them. Its best score was its rating on texting service, for which it scored a 2. No other carrier received a 1 on any of the categories at all.

But not everyone else did amazingly well. In fact, among Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, no one received a "5" score on any metric. The only one that did was US Cellular, which was ranked as the best provider. It, however, has limited coverage around the country.

The final ranking was as follows:

#1 - US Cellular
#2 - Verizon
#3 - Sprint
#4 - T-Mobile
#5 - AT&T

In response to the latest report, AT&T issued this statement:

"We take this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience. The fact is wireless customers have choices and a record number of them chose AT&T in the third quarter, significantly more than our competitors. Hard data from independent drive tests confirms AT&T has the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network with our nearest competitor 20 percent slower on average nationwide and our largest competitor 60 percent slower on average nationwide. And, our dropped call rate is within 1/10 of a percent – the equivalent of just one call in a thousand – of the industry leader."

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Mark Raby
Based in New York City, Mark follows the consumer electronics industry like a hawk. A published book author, he has a particular affinity for 3D technology and video games, and as such will surely be in the market for a new pair of glasses soon. Mark can be contacted directly at mark@i4u.com.