Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Wireless Carriers: Getting The Best Reception

By Cathy L. Kimble

A cell phone is only as good as the carrier that provides the signal. One could easily devote as much time to researching call plans and call reception as they could to choosing cell phones. Finding good data on this can be difficult, as choosing a wireless carrier involves analyzing so many variables that many online review sites wont even touch the subject.

J.D. Power and Associates has said that the level of quality on wireless phone service is so high that land lines (you remember, your house phone) have pretty much become unnecessary. But then again, there is not much that can be more confusing that statistics. See comScore Networks for example, they have it down as 1 in 4 wireless customers are not happy with their carriers service. Which such a great variation in statistics you can see that cell phone technology is still in its early stages of growth. If you were to speak to a friend and bring up cellular reception, watch out! you are sure to hear horror stories. J.D. Power and Associates also says that customers who attempted to resolve a problem using a carriers tech support/service and was unable to do so, were 6 times more prone to changing carriers. Another annoyance is that if you aren't happy with the phone itself, your still stuck to cell phone carriers contract, cancellation fees and all. These fees were introduced to help carriers maintain customers even when they are not satisfaction. Here is a quick rundown on wireless carrier ranking.

According to comScore, Verizon Wireless has consistently been rated the best carrier in terms of coverage and service. Overall, only six percent of customers break their service contract.

After Verizon, AT&T comes in at the number two spot. Alltel contract breakers are higher at 9%. Sprint/Nextel comes in at 11% and at the bottom with a high ratio of customers that are breaking their contracts at 15% is T-Mobile.

Please note that the comScore survey above is not location specific. It is also using the percentage of people that are breaking the contract as the main factor for determining carrier popularity. However J.D. Power and Associates survey does indeed verify Verizon Wireless as the leader, but also goes on to add that this is true more so in the Northeast, as Verizons coverage is the strongest there. And T-Mobile, scoring the lowest with the comScore survey, actually ranked number 1 in the Southwest if you go by the J.D. Power and Associates survey. Also Verizon ranks lower when it comes to the phones that run its service in CDMA technology rather than GSM. As a result, Verizon cell phones do not normally accept SIM cards. This prevents them from being used when traveling overseas. As well the cost of Verizon wireless service also ranked as more expensive. So while Verizon's customer service did get top marks, its bills tend to be confusing to read.

Sprint is also very popular in the Southwest, according to J.D. Powers and Associates. But J.D. Powers and Associates also concedes that Sprint ranks lowest in call quality. The PcMagazime survey also confirms that Sprint ranks lowest in call quality. The PCMagazine survey also gave T-Mobile a rank as the best carrier in terms of pricing. This is second to Alltel when it comes to service plan options. GSM cell phones, and a wide variety of them can be used on the T-Mobile network these GSM/SIM card compatible phones also enabe you to use the one overseas.

Prepaid cell phones deserve their own category all together. Virgin Mobile won the highest marks, just ahead of TracFone and T-Mobile respectively. Verizon, AT&T , follow in order of decreasing popularity, with poor Sprint/ Nextel once again at the bottom of the heap.

Which carrier you choose may depend not only on how many phone calls you need to make but also on what part of the country you will be using your phone. Also if you travel a lot internationally and even what type of cell phone will best suit your needs. It pays to do the research and ulimatley avoid being trapped in a contract that you are unhappy with. - 22787

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