AT&T blasted by the Consumer Reports

In the latest edition of the Houston Chronicle, they published the results of a Consumer Reports survey on the services of the major carriers in the country. And according to the results, AT&T pretty much bombed big time. AT&T failed to score above “worse” in all the categories except for texting where they scored one notch above “worse”. Except for US Cellular all the other carriers didn’t even get the coveted “better” rating for any of their services. It sure sounds like some carriers have some shaping up to do. AT&T, unhappy with the published results responded with an email:

“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.”

This raises a couple of questions- if AT&T’s service is as great as they claim, then why are consumers so unhappy with them? And with AT&T’s network seeing a significant rise only after the introduction of the iPhone 4 this year, did their network suffer because of the surge of customers? And how accurate is the report? Obviously we won’t take the results as definitive- network coverage and customer service will vary from area to area. The best way to know which carrier is the “best” for you is is to just find out for yourself by using their services. Voice your opinions in the comments- what carrier are you on, and are you happy with what you’re getting?