WASHINGTON-Congressional auditors said Monday that a recent survey of wireless consumers showed general satisfaction with call quality even though the General Accounting Office estimated that one-fifth of users were unable to complete 10 percent or more of their calls.
“To assess the extent to which consumers are experiencing call quality problems-such as blocked or dropped calls, insufficient capacity, dead spots, or lack of coverage-we included questions on a national survey of adult consumers, conducted in November 2002. Our survey indicated that about four-fifths of adult mobile-phone users were satisfied with their service, about one-tenth were dissatisfied, and the remainder indifferent,” reads the GAO report, requested by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY).
GAO also recommends that the Federal Communications Commission include call-quality data in its yearly report to Congress on wireless competition.
“While call quality has been identified as a factor that affects consumers’ choice of a carrier, the FCC does not discuss call quality in this report,” reads the highlights page of the GAO report. “FCC stated that, to the extent possible, it plans to include information related to call quality in its future annual reports on competition in mobile-phone services.”
