@jbtaylor on tech

All –

The Consumer Reports annual cell phone issue, “Best New Cell Phones & Plans” (January 2011) has hit newsstands and Consumer Reports readers rank Sprint as the best wireless carrier in Washington, D.C.

As the magazine does every year, this issue covers the best phones, services & plans, as well as network coverage in 23 cities. The ratings are based on responses from more than 58,000 Consumer Reports subscribers surveyed in September 2010. The survey did not take into account the formal launch of Sprint 4G, which debuted in Washington, D.C, Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland on Nov. 29.

The key results are:

• Sprint’s overall reader score (which reflects readers’ overall satisfaction with their cell phone service including value, voice, data and customer support) improved six points from last year’s issue to 73. This score now puts Sprint in a statistical tie with Verizon (scored a 74) for second place (note that this year U.S. Cellular received the top spot with 82 points (although they were not rated in the majority of the markets.)
• Sprint is the only major carrier to have shown improvement in its reader scores last year and since 2008.
• The lowest ranked carrier is AT&T with a score of 60. AT&T also ranked in last place in every one of the 23 cities surveyed.
• Consumer Reports writes that Sprint and Verizon are the best choices overall for most people. “These are the highest-scoring nationally available carriers for contract service. Verizon has an edge in voice service overall. Sprint scored better in some aspects of customer service, which is a remarkable turnaround from past years when that was a weak point for the company.”
• In the smart phones ratings, Sprint was ranked second (behind Verizon) in terms of user satisfaction. The magazine’s readers ranked the Epic 4G as one of the best smart phones, with the EVO 4G and Intercept placing in 2nd and 3rd place.
• On wireless plans: the magazine considers Sprint’s Everything Data plans the “smart choice.”

Here’s a chart that shows Sprint’s progress in the Consumer Reports survey nationally since 2008.

While we still have more work to do, we see this news as further evidence that our work to improve the customer experience is starting to pay off.

Earlier today, J.D. Powers issued their latest survey of wireless call quality.

Sprint is now in a 3-way tie for first place in the Southeast region. (We're tied with T-Mobile and Verizon.) I think we should get the "Most Improved" award from J.D. Powers -- we were in last place in the Southeast as recently as February.

Sprint also made significant improvement in three other regions. We moved into second place in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and West regions. We retained our second place finish in the Southwest region.

The folks at ZD Net have some nifty charts which breakdown the standings. If you're a current Sprint customer, I'm interested in learning if this meshes with your experience with our network.

Let me know in the comments section.