Consumer Reports: Verizon Ranked Best Wireless Carrier while AT&T Ranked the Worst

[Akshay Masand]

One would imagine that after a year of continually being ranked the worst carrier in the United States, AT&T would have tried to change something around but unfortunately they haven’t. According to the latest Consumer Reports’ latest rankings, AT&T once again holds the total for overall worst U.S. carrier. It shouldn’t feel too bad though since not a single major U.S. carrier scored above an overall satisfaction score of 72, which isn’t very high in the first place if you think about it.

The carrier that came on top ended up being Verizon once again with Sprint and T-Mobile following behind. According to Consumer Reports Senior Electronics Editor, Mike Gikas:

Verizon stands out from the pack if you are a heavy-duty data user. They’re the Cadillac network. They’re pricey in some respects, but in terms of overall quality of service and availability of service, they are the overall leader.

A tidbit that some of you might find interesting is that despite Verizon being preferred by heavy-data users, the other three big wireless carriers all scored better in 4G-service. AT&T even had the fewest amount of problems with 4G service overall. The satisfaction scores also varied based on location, with data finding results such as AT&T scoring better in areas like Chicago when compared to Verizon.

While the big carriers failed to impress, three smaller companies —Consumer Cellular, U.S. Cellular, and Credo Mobile— held the highest scores for customer satisfaction. U.S. Cellular, for instance, which is the largest of the three with service mostly in the Midwest, topped with a score of 88 percent. The dissatisfaction among the big U.S. carriers has actually led many consumers to jump ship to less expensive pre-paid plans. Apparently many consumers preferred to pay full price for their device so they could enjoy a lower monthly bill along with better customer experiences with their carriers.

At this point, I’m sure many of you have had at least one if not multiple experiences with your carrier of choice. How did your experiences go? Were they on par with the report’s findings?

Source: Consumer Reports via NBC News

[ShioN915]

Yeah I definitely would choose verizon over att but i'm stuck for 1 more year.

[AUSTIN3:16]

Yeah I definitely would choose verizon over att but i'm stuck for 1 more year.

I've been with AT&T since the Cingular days and have had 0 problems with them. Their customer service has always resolved any issue fast when I had any questions. I have lived and traveled between San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, California during that time.

[holyshnikes]

I've been with AT&T since the Cingular days and have had 0 problems with them. Their customer service has always resolved any issue fast when I had any questions. I have lived and traveled between San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, California during that time.

I'm in the same boat as you. I've been with Cingular/AT&T a long time and never really had any issues. The only thing that really got to me was when I preordered my 4s. It took way to long to ship to me and people in my area were just walking in the store and buying one without waiting at all. I've never really had a problem with the service though. In fact many times I have great service while my Verizon coworkers do not. +1

[nealh]

In Tampa, I have had all 3. IMHO, AT&T service(Esp CS) far exceeds the other 2.
I have most issues with cell service with Sprint then Verizon and least with AT&T

[kbcox0327]

AT&T suuuuuuuuucks! I was with Verizon until the iPhone pushed me to AT&T in the early days. I have had nothing but problems with AT&T. As a grandfathered unlimited customer I was treated like the red-headed step child. The last straw was the throttling. I just bought an iPhone 5 from AT&T & never even activated it. I trimmed up my Straight Talk SIM & activated it with them. I've now been with Straight Talk for three months & couldn't be happier.

[sammy1977]

What a bunch of BS... No way in the world AT&T is worse than Sprint. Not even close!

[AUZambo]

I've been with AT&T since the Cingular days and have had 0 problems with them. Their customer service has always resolved any issue fast when I had any questions. I have lived and traveled between San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, California during that time.

Same here. I've had AT&T since I dropped my PowerTel service. The name has changed from AT&T to Cingular back to AT&T in my time with the company. My wife has never had anything else, starting with Bellsouth Mobile in the 90s. Bellsouth was bought out by (or changed their name to) Cingular, which became AT&T, which became Cingular again, which changed back to AT&T.

Despite an occasional lost signal (which doesn't happen much) we've been happy. Birmingham metro, where we live, also has over 1,000,000 people, so AT&T is going to be certain to provide adequate coverage with that many potential customers. If we lived out in the sticks somewhere I may be singing a different tune.

[The6uest]

What a bunch of BS... No way in the world AT&T is worse than Sprint. Not even close!

I agree

[Raptor2213]

I had good service with AT&T, both in the quality of the connection and customer service, however, I got tired of their corporate policies regarding data usage. I had a grandfathered unlimited plan. I got fed up with the throttling and the restrictions and moved to Sprint. I've had the exact opposite experience with them so far.

[NewdestinyX]

AT&T suuuuuuuuucks! I was with Verizon until the iPhone pushed me to AT&T in the early days. I have had nothing but problems with AT&T. As a grandfathered unlimited customer I was treated like the red-headed step child. The last straw was the throttling. I just bought an iPhone 5 from AT&T & never even activated it. I trimmed up my Straight Talk SIM & activated it with them. I've now been with Straight Talk for three months & couldn't be happier.

You think "thottling's" a b1tch, wait til Straight Talk just cuts off your data after 2GB with no option to reactivate until next billing cycle. It's right in their agreement on website - and I've had 2 friends it actually happened to! They went back to AT&T and just paid for more data.

[LatinKreationz]

I've been with AT&T since the Cingular days and have had 0 problems with them. Their customer service has always resolved any issue fast when I had any questions. I have lived and traveled between San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, California during that time.

+1
I've been with AT&T since the original AT&T Wireless and have had zero problems. There are some areas that I frequent which can be spotty but not every wireless service works in all areas. They all have their flaws. Customer service has always been excellent in my book.

[Colby21]

I've had the same AT&T phone number since it was CellularOne, and all they give me is grief. I just stay with them now because I have unlimited everything for 62 bucks

[sstroud]

I had Cingular back in the old days but wanted a GSM phone for traveling overseas so I switched to Voicestream (T-Mobile now). When I decided to get an iPhone (the 3G) I switched to AT&T and have no regrets. I get good reception and my few experiences with customer service have been great. I've since had the iP4 and now the iP5, couldn't be happier. Still on the unlimited plan even though I never go over 2GB.

[Italia411]

AT&T and Verizon are the best North American cell company's hands down. I am a heavy data user and have had every iPhone on AT&T with no issues and have my iPads on Verizon. LTE drops to the fallback networks on both networks here and their. Besides that their both great companies. Consumer Reports ought to be ashamed of them selves.

[vinaygoel2000]

Consumer Reports is on crack!! How in the hell is Sprint better than AT&T. Long time customer of AT&T (since Cingular days) and have zero problems.

[tudtran]

Never have problem with AT&T customer service over the phone. But customer service at AT&T store is suck.

[The6uest]

I had good service with AT&T, both in the quality of the connection and customer service, however, I got tired of their corporate policies regarding data usage. I had a grandfathered unlimited plan. I got fed up with the throttling and the restrictions and moved to Sprint. I've had the exact opposite experience with them so far.

Exact opposite as far as quality of connection and customer service goes?

I agree though, AT&T's service and over-the-phone customer service has been great for me, but I got tired of the throttling as well and decided to move to their shared-data plan since I have a few lines on my account. I end up paying about the same yet I don't have to worry about being throttled and now all lines have unlimited talk and text too.

[Dranon]

ABSOLUTELY HATE!!!!! Verizon. I have ATT and have no great love for them but Verizon both business landline home and cell are horrible! I now have voip service at home and for the office!

[punjabi212]

I've had no problems with AT&T all the way back to the iphone 3g. So far this month have used 6gb of LTE data and have not gotten 'throttled.'