January 5, 2005

The cell phone and wireless industry faired poorly again in the Consumer Reports' annual mobile-phone survey, which underscored chronic, major problems with service, billing and complaint-handling with every national wireless carrier.

Consumer Reports said its overall satisfaction index has increased only one point, from 65 to 66 points, since the organization started measuring the wireless industry three years ago.

"Our survey findings are particularly troubling in the context of the recent spate of mergers within the wireless industry, which we believe will lead to decreased competition and increased prices," said Jim Guest, president of Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.

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"Consolidation is not a panacea to the service and customer satisfaction problems that continue to plague the industry. In the case of Cingular and AT&T, both companies had problems with overloaded circuits. We don't see how a merger could improve that."

Consumer Reports surveyed 39,000 ConsumerReports.org subscribers in 17 cities.

The organization found Verizon Wireless leading the rankings in all cities, as it has in previous surveys, but it didn't have a significant lead in most cities.

T-Mobile USA Inc. came in second as "usually a solid choice," while Sprint had "middling" levels of satisfaction and Cingular Wireless/AT&T Wireless Services Inc. had middling/low levels of satisfaction. Nextel Communications Inc. had low levels of satisfaction.

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Thirty-five percent of respondents said they were seriously considering switching carriers.

Most of those who had already switched said they were after better service. Nearly 70 percent of those who frequently use cell phones had at least one dropped call in the week before the survey, according to the survey.

Nearly 60 percent said they had bad connections.

Only 40 percent said a company's response to a billing inquiry was very helpful. And only 31 percent said a company's response to a service inquiry was very helpful.

Source: RCR News

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