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New AT&T, Verizon, other network ratings released

S

stewart715

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 2, 2008
459
7
Consumer Reports has released its annual review of US cell phone service carriers. This information is only available for Consumer Reports subscribers, but I will share it with you.

It still boggles the hell out of my mind why Apple wouldn't do everything in it's power to get on at least Sprint. They seem to care so much about their customers experience on their products, they have to know AT&T is hurting their customers experience. Funny thing is, AT&T is the most expensive network.

Right?

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* Differences in reader score of less than three points are not meaningful.
 

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stewart715 said:
Consumer Reports has released its annual review of US cell phone service carriers. This information is only available for Consumer Reports subscribers, but I will share it with you.

It still boggles the hell out of my mind why Apple wouldn't do everything in it's power to get on at least Sprint. They seem to care so much about their customers experience on their products, they have to know AT&T is hurting their customers experience. Funny thing is, AT&T is the most expensive network.

Right?
Click to expand...

Yea, doesn't really make much sense but AT&T must be giving Apple a hell of a deal or something. At the end of the day, it all comes down to numbers which must make it more profitable for Apple to go with ATT than Verizon, even at the cost of their customers suffering.

On the other hand, you have all the ATT fanboys on this forum who were absolutely giddy with joy when there was no Verizon iPhone announced yesterday. Why? Who the heck knows, I guess they must be drinking some pretty strong kool aid.
 
I wonder how the stress of so many iphone would hinder other carrier's services? I'm not blaming all of AT&T faults on the iPhone/Apple, but it seems like other devices do not seem to have nearly as many problems on AT&T.
 
mojoe24 said:
I wonder how the stress of so many iphone would hinder other carrier's services? I'm not blaming all of AT&T faults on the iPhone/Apple, but it seems like other devices do not seem to have nearly as many problems on AT&T.
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well hopefully by opening up the iPhone to other carriers, their networks would share the load.
 
icyfire said:
On the other hand, you have all the ATT fanboys on this forum who were absolutely giddy with joy when there was no Verizon iPhone announced yesterday. Why? Who the heck knows, I guess they must be drinking some pretty strong kool aid.
Click to expand...

I think to some people the iPhone is still a fashion statement. While a lot of people already have the phone (enough to where if it's pulled out in public nobody cares anymore) if it went to Verizon then that number would perhaps double. The more limited the iPhone is, the "cooler" it is.
 
Well that sucks for those AT&T customers polled. I have perfect voice and data service. I can't recall the last time I even contacted support.
 
they must take these score cards from non coverage areas.....

ive had my iphone for 1.5 yrs and no problems at all.....

before att and the iphone i had alltel, iphone and att have been solid for me.

works just as good as my alltel did if not better in some places..
 
labman said:
if anybody ever did research on how good and accurate Consumer Reports are?
Click to expand...

Not that accurate, because for all we know they tell us X (for argument sake let's say 1000) people, but we don't know if those 1000 were all on a single carrier (ie Verizon) and almost non on AT&T. Also, the report could have been done in an area that is on AT&T's to do network fixing list; like downtown New York.

All in all, I bet these are just reports to scare people away from AT&T.
 
thetexan said:
I think to some people the iPhone is still a fashion statement. While a lot of people already have the phone (enough to where if it's pulled out in public nobody cares anymore) if it went to Verizon then that number would perhaps double. The more limited the iPhone is, the "cooler" it is.
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You know, I think there is some truth to this. If the iPhone were released on other carriers, I'm sure some of the current users would be worried that all the hicks and commoners who live out in areas where AT&T has poor coverage would have access to their beloved symbol. Lending to this fact is that AT&T generally has stronger coverage in metro areas (which is also pretty ****** compared to other providers) and areas with higher income populations whereas Verizon also covers large areas with lower income populations (read: south and midwest). Once the iPhone becomes available to them, well then the iPhone suddenly loses it's elitist value.
 
labman said:
Just wondering if anybody ever did research on how good and accurate Consumer Reports are?
Click to expand...

How would you research that? Unless you're willing to ask 300 million Americans what they think then you're kind of stuck with representitive surveys.

CR does surveys and statistical math tells us that you should get a pretty accurate view from that.

I mean, that's what statistics are; a stand-in for reality when we can't know reality. You want to know how close to the real number these stats are, but no one can give you that answer. If someone did have the actual numbers then they wouldn't need to do surveys!
 
jav6454 said:
Not that accurate, because for all we know they tell us X (for argument sake let's say 1000) people, but we don't know if those 1000 were all on a single carrier (ie Verizon) and almost non on AT&T. Also, the report could have been done in an area that is on AT&T's to do network fixing list; like downtown New York.

All in all, I bet these are just reports to scare people away from AT&T.
Click to expand...

The fact that downtown New York is on AT&T's to do list is just further evidence of how ****** their network is. I mean come on, you'd think a cellular network worth a damn would have such a major area as downtown NY covered to the hilt. But I guess not when Steve keeps supporting AT&T's drug habit (aka. iPhone subscribers).
 
icyfire said:
The fact that downtown New York is on AT&T's to do list is just further evidence of how ****** their network is. I mean come on, you'd think a cellular network worth a damn would have such a major area as downtown NY covered to the hilt. But I guess not when Steve keeps supporting AT&T's drug habit (aka. iPhone subscribers).
Click to expand...

So you say the entire network's performance has to be based on one area? Wow, you are an even bigger Verizon fanboy than what I thought...
 
jav6454 said:
Not that accurate, because for all we know they tell us X (for argument sake let's say 1000) people, but we don't know if those 1000 were all on a single carrier (ie Verizon) and almost non on AT&T. Also, the report could have been done in an area that is on AT&T's to do network fixing list; like downtown New York.

All in all, I bet these are just reports to scare people away from AT&T.
Click to expand...

Wow, so Consumer Reports is just a scam designed to fool you? Part of a secret government society, perhaps?

And I bet Steve Jobs is reading all your e-mails too, right? (Or maybe aliens are involved somehow!)

No, really, I have to know. What's your theory on this? Who's controlling CR in your opinion? The Illuminati? The Masons? Or just a bit of illegal AT&T fraud?
 
Small White Car said:
Wow, so Consumer Reports is just a scam designed to fool you? Part of a secret government society, perhaps?

And I bet Steve Jobs is reading all your e-mails too, right? (Or maybe aliens are involved somehow!)

No, really, I have to know. What's your theory on this? Who's controlling CR in your opinion? The Illuminati? The Masons? Or just a bit of illegal AT&T fraud?
Click to expand...

I am not saying they are frauds, but if they want a broader view, interview 1000 people of each major city, then we can talk, but interviewing only 1000? ok, not much data from that
 
Apple linked up with ATT for business reasons. This was a risky and bold
move to enter the very closed world of wireless service at the time. Apple hit a home run and ATT benefited too.

Now Apple can pretty much do what it wants and will, no doubt, announce
additional carriers soon. I'd expect T-mobile soon as its a GSM network (as soon as exclusivity ends sometime this summer.) Verizon will probably come, but the CDMA thing is a bit of a hangup.
 
I've never had a problem either. Maybe a few dropped calls in more than a year of using my iPhone. But at least ATT service calls me "sir".
 
jav6454 said:
All in all, I bet these are just reports to scare people away from AT&T
Click to expand...

jav6454 said:
I am not saying they are frauds
Click to expand...

Then you are being very kind to them.

If I thought that someone was intentially manipulating data to make a single company look bad (as you said in your earlier post) than I would certainly consider that to be fraud.

jav6454 said:
but interviewing only 1000? ok, not much data from that
Click to expand...

Also, I'm confused where this fact comes from. I don't see it in the original screenshots. Is there some other site you've read this on?
 
I, for one, have had my share of headaches with AT&T; but having said that, I have nothing that tells me it would be any different with any other carrier. I had AT&T many years ago and cancelled it due mostly to customer service issues. I switched to Cingular at the time, and a couple of years later the two merged and I had AT&T again. A couple more years later the iPhone came out and I got mine in late August of 2007. I live on the outskirts of Charlotte in an area that doesn't have the best coverage and as a result, I've had a few discussions with CS both before getting my iPhone and after. It's amazing how quick AT&T is to tell me that my problem is the phone and I need to call Apple. Even when they have an Edge tower down and non-iPhones are showing the same lack of Edge, they would tell me it was Apple's fault and not theirs. Infuriating. I won't get into my aggravation over the whole lack-of-tethering thing, refusal to let the iPhone stream video & other things that other AT&T phones can do, and other issues.

In the end, I dare say those ratings are accurate and that many people are unhappy with AT&T for many reasons. But at the end of the day, how do I know that my iPhone (and millions of others) on any other carrier would be any different? And despite AT&T crying about problems being the fault of Apple/iPhone when they clearly aren't, I still love my iPhone too much to drop AT&T for a network that I couldn't take it to.
 
Small White Car said:
Also, I'm confused where this fact comes from. I don't see it in the original screenshots. Is there some other site you've read this on?
Click to expand...

See:

jav6454 said:
Not that accurate, because for all we know they tell us X (for argument sake let's say 1000) people, but we don't know if those 1000 were all on a single carrier (ie Verizon) and almost non on AT&T. Also, the report could have been done in an area that is on AT&T's to do network fixing list; like downtown New York.

All in all, I bet these are just reports to scare people away from AT&T.
Click to expand...

I state that for arguments sake let's assume they used 1000 people. They could have used 100,000, 10,000, but the argument stands, all of those could have been from a single region which is not fair.
 
jav6454 said:
I state that for arguments sake let's assume they used 1000 people. They could have used 100,000, 10,000, but the argument stands, all of those could have been from a single region which is not fair.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but what? Your point is that CR isn't accurate because you made up some "facts?"

Why stop there? If we're just going to lie about them then surely we can do even better than that. Hey, I bet CR only interviews rapists! Clearly rapists are trying to make AT&T look bad, so we shouldn't trust these numbers!

I mean, isn't that even more convincing than your imaginary "1000 people from the same city" argument?
 
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