Verizon Wireless, Alltel tops in Consumer Reports survey

In its annual rating of wireless service, Consumer Reports christened Verizon Wireless and Alltel Corp. its top picks-and largely panned service from Sprint Nextel Corp.
Based on nearly 48,000 responses from Consumer Reports’ online subscribers, the magazine ranked the five largest wireless carriers’ performance in 20 metropolitan areas around the country. Verizon Wireless received the highest ranking in 15 of the 20 and tied for the top spot with T-Mobile USA Inc. in the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Seattle markets.
Consumer Reports concluded that T-Mobile USA’s service was “on par with Verizon in most of the metro areas we surveyed” and often offered a less expensive service option. Meanwhile, Alltel came out on top in the three cities for which Consumer Reports had adequate survey data: Tampa, Fla.; Cleveland, Oh.; and Phoenix, Ariz.
Sprint Nextel suffers
Sprint Nextel Corp.’s CDMA service (iDEN customers were excluded due to operating on a different technology) ranked at the bottom of the service survey in every market except Minneapolis-St. Paul (where AT&T received the lowest ranking), leading Consumer Reports to conclude that the carrier was “consistently among the lowest-ranted for satisfaction, dropped calls and customer service.” The magazine concluded that Sprint Nextel was “worth considering only if you especially value special offerings such as its walkie-talkie ‘push-to-talk’ service.”
Sprint Nextel has already been struggling with its performance and has said it will pour more resources into improving customer service.
The survey was conducted in September of this year.
Phone rankings
Consumer Reports also rated 60 different feature phones and smartphones, with the top picks including:
–For Verizon Wireless customers, the Verizon G’zOne Type-S and LG Chocolate VX8550 were the highest-ranked feature phone picks.
–T-Mobile USA’s top-ranked models were the Motorola V195 and Nokia 6103.
–The Samsung Sync and Sony Ericsson W810i received the highest ratings for AT&T Mobility.
–Sprint Nextel’s LG Muziq LX570 and Sanyo Katana DLX received the highest rankings for that carrier.
Among smartphones, the Apple Inc. iPhone from AT&T Mobility and the Palm Treo 755P from Sprint Nextel topped Consumer Reports’ list.