J.D. Power, a company that collects data and then uses it to name and shame companies who don’t quite live up to their overpriced marketing slogans, has published the results of a survey they conducted between January and June of this year with the help of 22,110 wireless customers. They say that AT&T is hands down the worst wireless operator in the United States. Breaking it down geographically, in the North East AT&T comes last, with Verizon taking the lead, and Sprint/T-Mobile tying for second place. In the Mid Atlantic region, Verizon is again on top, and Sprint/T-Mobile/AT&T tie for second. In the South Eastern part of the nation, no surprise here, Verizon is on top, T-Mobile is second, and Sprint/AT&T tie for third; it’s the same situation in the North Central area. In the South West AT&T and Sprint came in second behind Verizon, and T-Mobile came in last. And finally, in the West it’s Verizon #1, T-Mobile #2, Sprint #3, and AT&T dead last, again.
So what does AT&T have to say about this? They issued the following statement to Boy Genius Report:
Over the past year, third party drive tests have shown consistently strong call retainability for AT&T. Nationally, we are within two calls out of a thousand behind the only higher score, and we are focused on continued improvement to deliver the industry;s best call retainability for our customers. AT&T is constantly working to deliver the nation’s most advanced wireless experience, and as a result our customers have access to the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, with the ability to talk and surf the Web at the same time and access to the broadest international coverage of any U.S. provider.
We’re going to incredible lengths — and investing billions of dollars — to make our customers’ experience even better. And further improving the customer experience is the motivation behind our proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA.
Now please excuse us while we spin in our office chairs, laugh like hyenas, and sit bare-assed on a fax machine that will soon be sending some lovely photos to Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO of AT&T Mobility.