Prepaid MVNOs Outrank Carriers in Consumer Reports

Image by Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports has published their annual review of cell phone service and, surprisingly, three MVNOs ranked at the top of the charts. Ting, Consumer Cellular and Republic Wireless all received top marks while the more traditional postpaid carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon were rated a little worse. Here are some highlights from the report:
  • Ting and Consumer Cellular both received overall satisfaction scores in the 90s, and both received ‘excellent’ marks for value and data service reliability
  • Republic Wireless was ranked as the top prepaid carrier
  • Republic, Ting and Consumer Cellular are the only carriers in the survey to receive highest marks for value
  • Lowest value rankings went to AT&T, Sprint and Verizon
  • Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T more or less tied in overall satisfaction
  • Sprint ranked lowest overall in customer satisfaction, for the second year in a row
  • In previous years, Verizon out-performed the other three carriers, but has fallen in overall satisfaction. However, they ranked highest among the Tier 1 carriers in voice, text, web and 4G reliability
  • T-Mobile received the highest rank for value, resolving issues promptly and customer service rep knowledge
  • Sprint ranked lowest in phone support, lack of knowledge and ability to resolve issues
Consumer Reports is generally considered to be one of the more reputable sources for rankings, as they are not swayed by commercial interests. In this survey, they surveyed more than 63,000 consumers about their wireless experiences. As a note, roughly 73% of respondents were on traditional postpaid contracts, with 11% using traditional no-contract plans and another 11% used prepaid services. If you want to read the full report, click here. The full report includes separate ratings for 26 major US areas and several companies not mentioned here including Tracfone. Viewing the report, unfortunately, does require a subscription, but is well worth the time.]]>

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