Carrier J.D. Power Wireless Rankings are out.

[jamezr]

FWIW
Verizon Wireless Ranks Highest in Wireless Network Quality Performance in All Six Regions -


http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2015-us-wireless-network-quality-performance-study—volume-1

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The metric "best nationwide network" or "fastest nationwide network" has always bugged me. What percent of mobile phone users travel over more than a 50 mile radius from some point with any frequency?

I care about the carrier that has a good signal at my house. I don't care if you offer 40 Mbps in New York and 60 Mbps in San Francisco if you have *ZERO* signal at my house. (As is true for AT&T, for example.)

It just happens that Verizon does have the "best signal" at my house, but only at 3G. T-Mobile has a lower signal strength, but gets full LTE.

 

[Lloydbm41]

FWIW
Verizon Wireless Ranks Highest in Wireless Network Quality Performance in All Six Regions -


http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2015-us-wireless-network-quality-performance-study—volume-1

I think they were ranked highest in "Ability to penetrate your nether regions in the most painful way possible" as well.

 

[jamezr]

The metric "best nationwide network" or "fastest nationwide network" has always bugged me. What percent of mobile phone users travel over more than a 50 mile radius from some point with any frequency?

I care about the carrier that has a good signal at my house. I don't care if you offer 40 Mbps in New York and 60 Mbps in San Francisco if you have *ZERO* signal at my house. (As is true for AT&T, for example.)

It just happens that Verizon does have the "best signal" at my house, but only at 3G. T-Mobile has a lower signal strength, but gets full LTE.

For me Verizon has the best service. I can go fishing or 4x4ing in the mountains or desert and always have a signal with Verizon. I have AT&T as well but they just don't have the signal in all the areas i need. With TMO..... their service is very fast! But I walk to the back of my gym during a workout and lose signal.

 

[gotluck]

surprised at ATT's performance in the Southeast

maybe I don't go to the boondocks enough, but ATT & Verizon seem equivalent in FL

at least as far as signal bars, speedtests were generally better on ATT when I was testing when my wife was still on verizon. Location location I guess

 

[Black Magic]

The metric "best nationwide network" or "fastest nationwide network" has always bugged me. What percent of mobile phone users travel over more than a 50 mile radius from some point with any frequency?

I care about the carrier that has a good signal at my house. I don't care if you offer 40 Mbps in New York and 60 Mbps in San Francisco if you have *ZERO* signal at my house. (As is true for AT&T, for example.)

It just happens that Verizon does have the "best signal" at my house, but only at 3G. T-Mobile has a lower signal strength, but gets full LTE.

Having good signal strength at your house or job should be irrelevant because you should be on your own wifi. Having a strong network through out the city you live in is a good benchmark because if you are out and about running around, chances are you will want reliable fast data connections.

Also, if by some chance you decide to go on vacation with your family or have to leave town due to job, you would like to know that your phone will work reliably regardless of where you travel. If you had a surprise job related travel to New York, the last thing you want to worry about is your phone working properly.

Having said all that, I think the metrics matter.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Having good signal strength at your house or job should be irrelevant because you should be on your own wifi. Having a strong network through out the city you live in is a good benchmark because if you are out and about running around, chances are you will want reliable fast data connections.

Yes, for data I am usually on WiFi, but the networks also impact voice. As I said, with zero AT&T signal, AT&T is useless. In addition, we have "iffy" home internet service, which goes down at least once a month, so we end up relying on our cellular phones for internet for a day or two each month. Having usable internet is nice when that happens.

 

[spinedoc77]

Having good signal strength at your house or job should be irrelevant because you should be on your own wifi. Having a strong network through out the city you live in is a good benchmark because if you are out and about running around, chances are you will want reliable fast data connections.

Also, if by some chance you decide to go on vacation with your family or have to leave town due to job, you would like to know that your phone will work reliably regardless of where you travel. If you had a surprise job related travel to New York, the last thing you want to worry about is your phone working properly.

Having said all that, I think the metrics matter.

Wifi doesn't help much for voice calls other than on Tmobile. As someone who ditched my land line years ago cell phone reception at home is VERY important to me.

 

[Black Magic]

Yes, for data I am usually on WiFi, but the networks also impact voice. As I said, with zero AT&T signal, AT&T is useless. In addition, we have "iffy" home internet service, which goes down at least once a month, so we end up relying on our cellular phones for internet for a day or two each month. Having usable internet is nice when that happens.

Wifi doesn't help much for voice calls other than on Tmobile. As someone who ditched my land line years ago cell phone reception at home is VERY important to me.

Fair enough. I think my comment about home signal being irrelevant missed the mark but ultimately the comment about signal strength and availability around the entire city brought me back to the point I was trying to make. The metrics are helpful in determining if you are trying to compare overall quality of network across carriers.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

For me in NYC area ....

Verizon has plenty of dead zones. But in the places it works, it seems to work in places that other carriers don't, like elevators, basements, underground tunnels, and etc.

T-mobile has the best plans, and the fastest LTE in my experience. Dead zones are rare.

AT&T is pretty good, but there plans suck nowadays. They got greedy within the past 5 years.

Sprint ..... SUCKS!!!!!! How do they even stay in business?

 

[jrswizzle]

For me in NYC area ....

Verizon has plenty of dead zones. But in the places it works, it seems to work in places that other carriers don't, like elevators, basements, underground tunnels, and etc.

T-mobile has the best plans, and the fastest LTE in my experience. Dead zones are rare.

AT&T is pretty good, but there plans suck nowadays. They got greedy within the past 5 years.

Sprint ..... SUCKS!!!!!! How do they even stay in business?

AT&T is no more expensive than T-Mobile - at least for my plan (20GB/month + rollover, 3 smartphone lines, unlimited talk and text). AT&T is also more reliable than T-Mobile in the charts I've seen, though I'm sure that's changing as T-Mo buys up spectrum and builds their network out.

Still, I find AT&T more than satisfactory for my needs. And for a service I use constantly, and honestly couldn't live without, $145/month seems extremely reasonable and fair (not including price of smartphones or taxes).

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

AT&T is no more expensive than T-Mobile - at least for my plan (20GB/month + rollover, 3 smartphone lines, unlimited talk and text). AT&T is also more reliable than T-Mobile in the charts I've seen, though I'm sure that's changing as T-Mo buys up spectrum and builds their network out.

Still, I find AT&T more than satisfactory for my needs. And for a service I use constantly, and honestly couldn't live without, $145/month seems extremely reasonable and fair (not including price of smartphones or taxes).

That's not too bad. Unfortunate for me, I can use more than 20gb a month streaming video. And I switched to T-mobile before AT&T offered rollover data, which they only did out of pressure from T-mobile doing the same. AT&T not offering unlimited LTE data or a large enough cap that's affordable is really what made me switch.

I'm currently on the T-mobile 2 lines unlimited LTE data, talk, text, and 5GB of tethering for $100. I can't find another deal that can beat that.

Also my experience in the North east region is T-mobile LTE is very solid. With AT&T it would switch form LTE to HSPA+ frequently which degrades speed. On T-mobile I'm on LTE 99% of the time and getting around 25+ dwn & up. Only been with T-mobile since Oct but I'm pleasantly shocked they are so solid. Also, same experience when traveling to Cali.

 

[rhinosrcool]

AT&T is no more expensive than T-Mobile - at least for my plan (20GB/month + rollover, 3 smartphone lines, unlimited talk and text). AT&T is also more reliable than T-Mobile in the charts I've seen, though I'm sure that's changing as T-Mo buys up spectrum and builds their network out.

Still, I find AT&T more than satisfactory for my needs. And for a service I use constantly, and honestly couldn't live without, $145/month seems extremely reasonable and fair (not including price of smartphones or taxes).

As for service, I agree ATT is pretty good. My mobile share plan has 5 lines. However, their rollover plan is not anywhere near as good as T-MOBILE. Since you have to use up your alloted gbs before you can use the rollover and the rollover doesn't carry over, you can't have two consecutive months with rollover.

 

[jrswizzle]

As for service, I agree ATT is pretty good. My mobile share plan has 5 lines. However, their rollover plan is not anywhere near as good as T-MOBILE. Since you have to use up your alloted gbs before you can use the rollover and the rollover doesn't carry over, you can't have two consecutive months with rollover.

You can if you don't use the full allotment. Which I never do.

 

[rhinosrcool]

You can if you don't use the full allotment. Which I never do.

Then you're not using your rollover. To use your rollover, you have to go through your monthly allotment. Once done, for the next month, you won't get rollover.
.

 

[Black Magic]

Then you're not using your rollover. To use your rollover, you have to go through your monthly allotment. Once done, for the next month, you won't get rollover.
.

That doesn't sound right. If you don't use up all your data in one month, it rolls over to the next month. Example: You use 2GB in data for the month on a 4GB plan. Next Month you will have 6GB available to you. I'm on AT&T as well.

 

[rhinosrcool]

That doesn't sound right. If you don't use up all your data in one month, it rolls over to the next month. Example: You use 2GB in data for the month on a 4GB plan. Next Month you will have 6GB available to you. I'm on AT&T as well.

Rollover only comes from your regular monthly allotment. Let's say use use 7gb of your monthly allotment of 10gbs. That means next month, you have 13 gbs available. However, att uses your monthly allotment first. Meaning you can't use the rollover until you've used the 10gb. So, if you use any of the rollover, next month, you can't have any rollover. Even if you don't use all of the 3gb of rollover. They do not rollover the rollover.

Yes, you can have rollover in consecutive months if you don't use it. That's pretty lame.

 

[jrswizzle]

Then you're not using your rollover. To use your rollover, you have to go through your monthly allotment. Once done, for the next month, you won't get rollover.

.

You can get rollover data every month, but your rollover doesn't accumulate.

I have 31 GB of available data this month. I've used 14 GB. My normal plan is for 20 GB. If the month ended today, I would get 26 GB next month.

 

[rhinosrcool]

You can get rollover data every month, but your rollover doesn't accumulate.

I have 31 GB of available data this month. I've used 14 GB. My normal plan is for 20 GB. If the month ended today, I would get 26 GB next month.

This is the last I repeat. All you're saying is that you get rollover each month that you don't use all of your allotment. Meaning that you're not using the rollover.

If you use any of your rollover, the next month, you don't get any rollover because you would need to go through your allotment before you can use rollover.

If they used the rollover first, then you could use the rollover each month (provided you don't go over your rollover and allotment). For example:

1st month with rollover (using your 20 gb a month allotment) with you having the 31 gbs to use:

20 allotment
11 rollover
31 total

To use any of the rollover, you have to go through your 20gb allotment.
Even if you only use 20.1 gbs, you get no rollover for the next month.

If they used the rollover first, you could use rollover each month:

11 rollover
20 allotment
31 gbs total

Here, you could use 20.1 gbs and still have almost 11 gbs to use the next month.

This is lame and ATT knows it. Actually, it's pretty clever on their part but it's still lame.

 

[jrswizzle]

This is the last I repeat. All you're saying is that you get rollover each month that you don't use all of your allotment. Meaning that you're not using the rollover.



If you use any of your rollover, the next month, you don't get any rollover because you would need to go through your allotment before you can use rollover.



If they used the rollover first, then you could use the rollover each month (provided you don't go over your rollover and allotment). For example:



1st month with rollover (using your 20 gb a month allotment) with you having the 31 gbs to use:



20 allotment

11 rollover

31 total



To use any of the rollover, you have to go through your 20gb allotment.

Even if you only use 20.1 gbs, you get no rollover for the next month.



If they used the rollover first, you could use rollover each month:



11 rollover

20 allotment

31 gbs total



Here, you could use 20.1 gbs and still have almost 11 gbs to use the next month.



This is lame and ATT knows it. Actually, it's pretty clever on their part but it's still lame.

Sorry, I get what you're saying now.

 

[rhinosrcool]

Sorry, I get what you're saying now.

Yeah, ATT is sneaky here. But, like you mentioned earlier, they have pretty good service. What are ya gonna do?

 

[Savor]

For a time, I HATED Verizon since it offered CDMA phones with poor resale value. I was a GSM/sim slot fan since Cingular in 2001. I traveled alot and needed phones to be be versatile, global, and interchangeable.

But after awhile, I started liking Verizon once we got into the LTE era and they started offering phones with a sim slot. They also had their phones UNLOCKED right out of the box even way before the unlocking bill passed last month. Verizon is still guilty of ugly carrier branding and bloatware. The brand is so apparent on the HTC Ones! And I still avoid Verizon's prepaid 3G phones without a sim slot.

If you are into iPhones, getting the Verizon version no longer sucks. No ugly branding or carrier bloatware. It might be more beneficial since the Verizon version is the more universal iPhone as you get both the CDMA/GSM frequencies. Sim unlocked right out of the box helps too.

 

[JayIsAwesome]

Pretty much agree with the rankings. Verizon has the overall best network and their customer service is also pretty top notch, atleast from my experience. Sprint being last? Yeah thats a shocker...said no one ever. Seriously cannot stand that company.