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Friday August 28, 2009
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 J.D. Power and Associates has released its 2009 Wireless Call Quality Performance Study, which measured call quality in six regions: Northeast; Mid-Atlantic; Southeast; North Central; Southwest; and West.
The study found that overall, wireless carriers have reduced the number of issues to four problems per 100 calls (PP100), down from 5 PP100 six months ago. In addition, failed connections are down to 3 PP100 (from 4 PP100), and audio issues like static declined from 3 PP100 to 2 PP100.
So who's on top? Verizon Wireless ranked the highest in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Southwest regions. J.D. Power said that Verizon Wireless did "particularly well" in limiting dropped calls, failed initial connections, and late or failed voice mail or text messages.
The numbers varied wildly; for example, AT&T scored the worst in the northeast, with 16 PP100; Sprint had 15 PP100, T-Mobile had 14 PP100, and VZW had just 8 PP100.
In the West, VZW tied with T-Mobile and Alltel for the top spot. In the
North Central region, U.S. Cellular was number one for the eighth
consecutive reporting period.
"As carriers continue to upgrade existing network infrastructure and
create more robust coverage footprints, wireless customers are
recognizing an improvement in performance," said Kirk Parsons, senior
director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates, in a statement.
"As
customers continue to increasingly stress wireless networks with
growing call volume and data usage for texting, e-mailing and surfing
the mobile Web, it is critical for carriers to keep enhancing network
performance by maintaining and upgrading to next-generation
technologies."
Other findings: subscribers receive an average of 112 texts per month,
nearly double from one year ago. In addition, 32 percent of calls are now made or
received within the home--a number that has slowly but steadily
increased, as more customers replace landlines with cell phones.
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August 28, 2009 7:05 PM
This is no surprise to me 'cause I now use the Verizon network indirectly through my Straight Talk unlimited prepaid phone. The coverage and network quality is simply outstanding! Best I've ever had. Of course ST is much less expensive than VZ's plans so I'm really glad to be able to save and still have the best network available to me. BTW, Straight Talk also won the JD Power award for best prepaid network, of course.
August 31, 2009 10:23 AM
Straight Talk is great. But Net10 was on top of the JD Power ratings. And TracFone was #2.
http://www.jdpower.com/telecom/ratings/Prepaid-Wireless-Ratings/sortcolumn-1/descending/page-2#page-anchor