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Consumer Reports: AT&T still ranks as worst US carrier

Bateluer

Bateluer

Lifer
http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/06/technology/att_worst_carrier/index.htm

The mobile provider ranked dead last for the second year in a row, and its rating fell from 2010. Actually, customer satisfaction with all four national carriers fell this year, with third-ranked T-Mobile sliding by the largest margin. Still, T-Mobile ranked well ahead of AT&T (T, Fortune 500), according to Consumer Reports' survey.
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AT&T's response:

"While we'll of course evaluate and learn from the Consumer Reports survey, we made significant progress in our network in 2011," said Mark Siegel, spokesman for AT&T.

Siegel noted that AT&T made 48,000 network improvements last year, resulting in a 25% improvement in 3G dropped call performance
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But, of course, people will still continue to buy their phones and use their service. For a long time, people only had AT&T for the iPhone. I'm curious to see where they will go now that the 2 other big national carriers carry the iPhone, a regional carrier has the iPhone, and every carrier(national and many regional) has a well fleshed out smartphone line up.
 
I once bought a 4G mobile hotspot to test out from AT&T. Didn't work at home, I literally spent all of 30 seconds with it on. Returned it the next day. One month later, I got a bill for $200 due to "data usage". After going back and forth with them over the bill for weeks, I finally got in touch with someone higher up and who knew what they were doing. Got the bill taken care of.

Never again AT&T.
 
Red Storm said:
I once bought a 4G mobile hotspot to test out from AT&T. Didn't work at home, I literally spent all of 30 seconds with it on. Returned it the next day. One month later, I got a bill for $200 due to "data usage". After going back and forth with them over the bill for weeks, I finally got in touch with someone higher up and who knew what they were doing. Got the bill taken care of.

Never again AT&T.
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Was it itemized at all, web sites or IPs?
 
Made a huge mistake.
I went from bad to worse or from Sprint to ATT a year ago.

1) a $65 rebate that I never got (my mistake, did not make a copy).
2) Where I work I have either no signal or I have to go outside. Everyone else carriers is working fine.
3) data plan is 200mb for $20/month if you go over that's another extra $20. This is the most ridiculous rip-off in the industry.
4) Its 3G is another joke, loading picture from a text keeps getting network failure.

I should have stayed with Sprint in which I will switch back when my 2 yrs plan is up.
 
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I must've been doing something wrong. Never had a single problem with AT&T for the 4 years I was with them. The one billing issue I had was due to the sales agent not putting a texting plan back on my account while trading up to the iPhone.

Had a bill for $250 or something...called up CS and they took care of it within 5 minutes. Pleasant and helpful.
 
AT&T has been awesome since I switched. They have HSPA+ service in the town I live in, and also where I work. These are towns of 18 and 30k people, and the population density is not high.

By comparison, Sprint has no service or very weak signal at both locations - 100% roaming to Verizon or maybe some 1x service. T-Mobile has 2G/EDGE service in both places. Verizon has strong 3G service, but AT&T's data speeds are far faster and with fewer dropped calls.

Why am I telling you this? Because cell service is a local issue. Buy what works for you based on the locations you frequent. The worst carrier in the world might be the best where you live.
 
sjwaste said:
Why am I telling you this? Because cell service is a local issue. Buy what works for you based on the locations you frequent. The worst carrier in the world might be the best where you live.
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Survey for a general overview across the USA. Its an average.
 
Our company switched all accounts in the US to ATT. It sucks. Folks in our main office are in a dead zone within our own office. If we can get data, it's at EDGE speeds. They promised to put in repeaters, but they keep delaying the build out.
Fortunately, I am VZW still, they just subsidize my phone bill for the time being.
Also, our field reps hate it. They were fine on VZW.
 
I had to have Sprint send me an Airave so I could get reliable signal in my house, and in many parts of the building at work I'd have no signal at all.

With AT&T I have good signal (even HSPA) everywhere I regularly go.
 
AT&T charges an additional 20$ per month for "Unlimited" MicroCell calling that uses your broadband......
 
zerogear said:
AT&T charges an additional 20$ per month for "Unlimited" MicroCell calling that uses your broadband......
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Also, any data you use while connected to a MicroCell counts against your data limit. Of course if you're in an area with a MicroCell you'd be connected to WiFi anyway, but still.

I'm fine with Sprint. Their 3G is pretty dang slow but they're still cheaper than Verizon and AT&T. What I don't understand is why people are so unhappy about losing Premiere. A mere $75 discount off of inflated unsubsidized prices after one year is completely overrated. I remember the first time I got a notification that I qualified for a 12-month upgrade, but everything was way too expensive.
 
I have had ATT for atleast 7-8 years. But this will probably be my last year on them.

I dropped my iPhone 4 in a lake a couple months back, and I have been using a captivate since then. I recently became eligible for an iPhone 4S, but I ended up just buying an iPhone 4 this week from my brother. Depending on what happens with the iPhone 5 and LTE, I will probably switch to Verizon.

I love the data speeds I get on ATT, but it has never been very reliable for me. Many times I have full service but just can't connect to data. I rarely talk on the phone, so drop calls aren't really an issue for me.
 
To be honest, with ATT&T supposed network upgrades and Spring sucking at theirs, I expended Sprint to slip into last.

My speeds have gotten awful the last year. If they don't get fixed by the time my contract is up, its back to big red for me and the fam.
 
I switched FROM Verizon TO AT&T after Verizon refused to help us with several issues (went through several defective Droid X's).

AT&T's network coverage isn't as good, but it's certainly not as horrendous as people in this area (mostly non-AT&T customers) make it sound. I'd say our coverage is 80-90% as good as Verizon was, and we even have service in some areas that Verizon did not.

The one thing that I have noticed is that my AT&T phone (Atrix, and now iPhone 4S) will openly admit when there is no service. I rarely saw "No Service" on my Verizon Droid X, and yet there were plenty of places that I couldn't get a call or message out, despite showing 1 bar. If I have one bar with either of my AT&T phones, calls or messages will work 99% of the time.
 
I know a lot of people have had bad experiences with AT&T, but I recently switched from T-Mobile, and I've been happy so far. I actually switched to Verizon first and hated it, so I canceled that within the window and activated AT&T. No complaints.
 
The only other major carrier I would consider switching to (on Verizon now) here is T-Mobile, and with AT&T doing everything it possibly can to buy them out, I'm worried that choice will be gone...
 
I have no issues with coverage or customer service with ATT. Every issue I have had they were able to take care of me plus some. ATT has by far the best coverage in my area. That is the reason I went with them. My dad delivers fuel oil in rual areas and needs the absolute best coverage. My only issue with ATT is pricing is to high especially for data. What hurts is my employee discount only counts for minutes not for data or texting. Where on sprint my employee discount was off of everything and made it dirt cheap. My issue is there was no coverage outside the city.
 
Around here Tmobile is definitely the worst. My work has AT&T repeaters so that's what I use and what I'll stick with. There's also something to be said about easily buying phones 2nd hand, or having backups in case your primary phone breaks, then just being able to swap sims.
 
Coverage with VZW is a little better here, but in SF AT&T is not that great. It's not so much reception as it is not being able to connect on data. I have no huge gripes with AT&T except for the fact that congestion in Vegas is an issue even when there's no large trade show. It's pretty much EDGE only and trying to get on 3G just causes mass disconnects and no data on my Nexus S.

I like having a GSM service and being able to pop a SIM card into my phone. And don't get me started on those Verizon world phones. What's the use when they're locked down and you can't use 850/1900. Stupid carriers.... AT&T allows me to use unbranded unlocked phones so I can stay as far away from these bloated branded phones.
 
I've had AT&T/Cingular since 2005, and it's been fine for the most part. Although, with Verizon having LTE service in my area, I may end up switching if AT&T just lags so far behind, which may occur if the T-Mobile purchase falls through. My only worry is that AT&T's 3G is pretty quick overall (I don't even have HSPA+ in my area yet), and Verizon's is not. So I may be fine in my own area with speedy LTE, but if I travel anywhere, I'll be on slow EVDO, which also doesn't allow you to use the data while on a call (their LTE implementation does though).

EDIT:

Overall, I'm going to keep an eye out over the course of the next year or two and see where both companies go with new technology roll-outs. If I'm disappointed in AT&T, I may just switch.
 
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