| Cell Phones: Wireless Carriers and Reception Explained |
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| Computers - Computers |
| Written by Cathy L. Kimble |
| Saturday, 13 June 2009 07:57 |
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Cellular Phones need reception in order to work. Good reception means a good experience, Great reception means a great one. Anyone looking can easily spend the same if not more time comparing a cell phone carrier and their plans as they would comparing the cell phones themselves. Getting proper information on this is hard. The reason for this is that the time and variables involved are so great that many online review site tend to steer clear of the subject.
Cellular Phones need reception in order to work. Good reception means a good experience, Great reception means a great one. Anyone looking can easily spend the same if not more time comparing a cell phone carrier and their plans as they would comparing the cell phones themselves. Getting proper information on this is hard. The reason for this is that the time and variables involved are so great that many online review site tend to steer clear of the subject. As said by J.D. Power and Associates, wireless service has reached such high quality that cell phone users no longer find it a requirement to maintain a land line as well as a cell phone. It appears cell phones are enough. But as with most statistics there are combating results. According to comScore Networks, an amazing 1 out of 4 cellular customers are not satisfied. These combating statistics show how cellular technology is still in its growing stages. Even ask someone about their service, you will always get miced results, those that love and those that hate their carrier, with plenty of stories to boot. J.D. Power and Associates also finds that people who had an unresolved problem with their carrier, after trying customer service, were six times more likely to switch provider. That is were cancellation fees come into play. You see cell phone companies want to maintain their customer for good or for worse and have implemented cancellation fees to increase customer retention. Even the intro of 3G Networks, which started off with great expectation has received its share of complaints. So how do you decide on the best carrier? Well here is a rundown of which carriers rank best. According to comScore, Verizon Wireless has consistently been rated the best carrier in terms of coverage and service. Overall, only six percent of customers break their service contract. AT&T (formerly Cingular) comes in at number 2. Alltel has about a 9% contract breaking ratio, while Sprint/Nextel have an even greater 11%. To top them all, T-Mobile, appears to have a high number of customer running for the door at 15%. Please note that the comScore survey above is not location specific. It is also using the percentage of people that are breaking the contract as the main factor for determining carrier popularity. However J.D. Power and Associates survey does indeed verify Verizon Wireless as the leader, but also goes on to add that this is true more so in the Northeast, as Verizons coverage is the strongest there. And T-Mobile, scoring the lowest with the comScore survey, actually ranked number 1 in the Southwest if you go by the J.D. Power and Associates survey. Also Verizon ranks lower when it comes to the phones that run its service in CDMA technology rather than GSM. As a result, Verizon cell phones do not normally accept SIM cards. This prevents them from being used when traveling overseas. As well the cost of Verizon wireless service also ranked as more expensive. So while Verizon's customer service did get top marks, its bills tend to be confusing to read. Sprint is also very popular in the Southwest, according to J.D. Powers and Associates. But J.D. Powers and Associates also concedes that Sprint ranks lowest in call quality. The PcMagazime survey also confirms that Sprint ranks lowest in call quality. The PCMagazine survey also gave T-Mobile a rank as the best carrier in terms of pricing. This is second to Alltel when it comes to service plan options. GSM cell phones, and a wide variety of them can be used on the T-Mobile network these GSM/SIM card compatible phones also enabe you to use the one overseas. Prepaid cell phones deserve their own category all together. Virgin Mobile won the highest marks, just ahead of TracFone and T-Mobile respectively. Verizon, AT&T , follow in order of decreasing popularity, with poor Sprint/ Nextel once again at the bottom of the heap. The call carrier landscape is a complicated one. Which carrier you choose may depend not only on how many phone calls one makes, but what part of the county youre in, whether or not you travel internationally, and even what type of phone hardware best suits your purposes. It pays to research this so you can avoid being trapped in a contract you want to break out of. About the Author: Article by Cathy L. Kimble in which she observes many carriers. She subcribes to and uses Verizon Wireless Phones because they offer superior service. She gets her Verizon LG Cell Phones at cellkraze.com. They sell them without the contract. |