From today's WSJ
By ANDREW DOWELL
Consumer Reports, the influential product review publication, says AT&T Inc.
is again the worst-rated cellular service provider in the U.S., a blow to
the carrier's effort to rehabilitate its network and reputation.
The conclusion, based on a survey of 58,000 readers, shows customers
continue to hold AT&T's service in low regard even after the carrier boosted
its wireless spending by $2 billion this year in an effort to correct what
it has acknowledged were weaknesses in its network.
.The results bode poorly for AT&T as it faces possible competition for Apple
Inc.'s iPhone, a device it carries exclusively now and relies on for much
of its subscriber growth. In fact, Consumer Reports found "iPhone owners
were, by far, the least satisfied with their carrier."
"We take this seriously, and we continually look for new ways to improve the
customer experience," AT&T said in an emailed statement. The carrier
pointed to its success attracting customers and claimed its dropped-call
rate is only slightly worse than the best in the industry.
Apple is making a version of the iPhone that Verizon Wireless, the country's
largest wireless carrier, will sell early next year, people familiar with
the matter have said.
Verizon came in second in Consumer Reports' ratings of cellphone carriers,
behind U.S. Cellular Corp., which has just 6.1 million customers, compared
with Verizon's 93.2 million.
One company to come out well from the survey was the third-largest U.S.
wireless carrier, Sprint Nextel Corp. Its overall satisfaction rating pulled
nearly even with Verizon's, an indication the company's effort to improve
service and build up its device lineup is getting through to consumers.
AT&T, the second largest U.S. wireless carrier, has been dogged by questions
about its network quality for about as long as it's carried the iPhone,
released by Apple in 2007.
Users have complained loudly about dropped calls in particular, a result of
the network stress brought on by iPhone users' heavy data traffic.
AT&T has acknowledged that it didn't foresee the spike in demand and that
its call quality fell short, particularly in New York City and San Francisco.
This year, AT&T boosted its capital spending to shore up the network. It
claimed to have largely finished the work in New York this summer, but said
work in San Francisco was being held up by equipment shortages and zoning
issues.
The efforts didn't register with the readers Consumer Reports surveyed. AT&T
got the lowest ranking on eight of nine measures of customer support,
service and value.
The publication said AT&T was the only carrier to see a substantial drop in
its overall satisfaction score from a year ago, falling to 60 from 66.
