The January 2007 Consumer Reports has their annual survey of cellular
phone service out. They surveyed about 43,000 cellular subscribers and
rate the carriers in 20 metropolitan areas on metrics of coverage,
network congestion, dropped calls, and static.

As in previous years, Verizon is the top carrier in most metro areas,
but T-Mobile and Alltel also did well in many areas.

The most amusing part of the story is the sidebar about Cingular's claim
of "fewest dropped calls." Consumer Reports states: "our own surveys
have found Cingular to be only about average when it comes to dropped
calls and one of the poorer performers in terms of overall satisfaction."

This annual survey is statistically the most accurate survey of wireless
carriers, though J.D. Power's survey of about 24,000 users has a
similarly small margin of errer. JD Power reached essentially the same
conclusions as Consumer Reports, with Verizon and T-Mobile leading in
all regions.

The metro areas where Verizon had a significant lead over Cingular (8 or
more points) were Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Phoenix, San Diego, San
Francisco, Tampa, and Washington D.C..