Verizon’s cell phone service has come out on top in terms of US carriers, according to Consumer Reports. AT&T, on the other hand, was only praised for its stellar 4G performance. Besides LTE, AT&T was given poor ratings across the board.



Consumer Reports surveyed 63,000 subscribers to reach their ratings. They looked at voice and data quality, the knowledge of staff, and how promptly issues were resolved. It wasn’t just AT&T who got beat up by Consumer Reports, Sprint and T-Mobile also received “middling to low marks,” with voice and text service judged to be particularly disappointing.

At least AT&T has its 4G data to be happy about. “[AT&T] users reported the fewest problems with that higher-speed service, which most new smart phones now use,” Consumer Reports concludes. Even though Verizon may have gotten into 4G first, it looks like AT&T has at least moved ahead of them in that regard.

For prepaid, Consumer Reports favors the smaller, regional carries. Consumer Reports cites better deals and monthly savings as a primary reason for going with prepaid. For prepaid, US Cellular takes the top spot, with Credo Mobile in second place; if you’re not in the coverage of either, Verizon is in third place.

[via SlashGear]

3 COMMENTS

  1. Consumer Reports obviously doesn’t know and didn’t survey my market segment.

    If you’re not still grandfathered into unlimited data, Verizon is the absolute LAST carrier I would recommend regardless of customer service. Their data plans are almost as much of a ripoff as $20 a month unlimited texting plans were. And their prepaid plans are a complete joke ($80 a month for 2GB of data without a subsidy? Really?)

    How does T-Mobile not get higher marks for their 100 minutes + Unlimited text/data plan that’s only $30 a month? That’s pretty much exactly what younger smartphone users want at a MUCH more reasonable price than Verizon or AT&T.

      • I realize that not everyone has the same needs when it comes to wireless service, and I think that’s exactly the problem with statements such as “Verizon comes out on top”. They simply aren’t being made with the necessary amount of caveats to be relevant in my opinion.

        “Verizon ranked highest in customer service.” or “Verizon’s voice quality received top marks.” are much more relevant to consumers who will rank those aspects wildly different from one another depending on how they use the service.

        I shouldn’t criticize their methods too much since I can’t read the full survey at consumer reports (paywall), but the fact that they ranked Verizon’s prepaid service higher than T-Mobile or Straight Talk throws up a huge red flag for me and suggests that they didn’t consider value at all in their rankings. I think that’s a pretty huge mistake that invalidates their conclusions for a LOT of people.

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