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Cell Phones: Wireless Carriers and Reception Explained
By Cathy L. Kimble | June 20, 2009
Cellular phones rely on the carriers strength. The signal makes the phone. This can mean the difference to a phone being a good phone or a great phone. You can easily take as much time to find the best calling plans and area reception as you would to finding the best cellular telephone. The problem is, locating information about calling plans is tough because this involves comparing oh so many variables. That is why a lot of online review sites avoid this subject.
According to J.D. Power and Associates, the quality of cell phone services has reached such a high standard across the board that there was no longer a reason to own a traditional phone line anymore. Yet nothing can be more confusing than statistics. According to comScore Networks, a whopping one in four cell phone customers are not satisfied with their wireless carrier. With such an astonishingly large statistic, its clear that cell phone signal technology is still in its adolescence. Ask any of your friends about cell phone reception horror stories and theyll have plenty of fireside tales to tell you. J.D. Power and Associates also asserts that call carrier customers who did not have their complaints resolved by customer service were six times more likely to switch carriers. But heres the rub: If one isnt satisfied with ones cell phone, its easy enough to get another one. But dropping a cell phone carrier is another matter. The advent of phone carrier contracts with cancellation penalty fees has largely come about to combat cell phone carrier dissatisfaction . Even the advent of 3G Networks, which was announced with great fanfare, still hasnt quelled a considerable percentage of cell phone customers that are not happy with their carriers. The following is brief rundown of which carriers rank best.
As said by comScore, Verizon as a Wireless Service Provider has continuously raked tops in both coverage and service. And, surprisingly, a low six percent of their customer break the contract.
AT&T (formerly Cingular) comes in at number 2. Alltel has about a 9% contract breaking ratio, while Sprint/Nextel have an even greater 11%. To top them all, T-Mobile, appears to have a high number of customer running for the door at 15%.
The above comScore survey is not location specific and uses the percentage of customers breaking the service contract as the main determinant for popularity. A J.D. Power and Associates survey does confirm Verizon as the leader, but adds that this is particularly true in the Northeast, where Verizons coverage is the strongest. T-Mobile, with the lowest rating in the comScore survey, actually ranked first in the Southwest, according to JD Power. Moreover, Verizon also ranks lower in terms of the phones that run its service, which tend to use CDMA technology rather than GSM. As a result, Verizon phones tend to not accept SIM cards (Subscriber Identity Modules) which prevents their use when travelling overseas. Verizons rates also ranked as considerably more expensive than its rivals, and though its customer service gets high marks, its bills tend to be confusing to read.
J.D. Powers and Associates also says that in the Southwest, Sprint is very popular. But at the same time concedes that in terms of call quality Sprint rank very low. A PC Magazine survey also confirmed the latter statistic. However PC Magazine also ranked T-Mobile as the best carrier in terms of pricing, second only to Alltel. As well T-Mobile has a wide range of cell phone in which you can use its service and since T-Mobile uses GSM you can use a SIM card enabling international use.
When is comes to prepaid cell phones, they deserve a category on their own. Virgin Mobile had the highest points, just ahead of TracFone and T-Mobile. Verizon Prepaid service as well as AT&T prepaid service follow in order of decreasing popularity, with good old Sprint/ Nextel at the bottom of the rankings.
So which carrier should you choose? Well this all depends on how many phone calls you make, what area you make them in, if you travel a lot, and which carrier offers the best phone options. Ultimately it is up to you. But doing your due diligence will help you to avoid getting into a contract you will want to break out of.
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