On Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:38:14 -0800, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
wrote in <45761f08$0$82584$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>:

>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,

Actually not a good statistical sample, due to its self-selected nature
from a non-representative universe.

>though J.D. Power's survey of about 24,000 users has a
>similarly small margin of errer.

Actually a fairly large margin of error, comparable in size to
differences between carriers.

>JD Power reached essentially the same
>conclusions as Consumer Reports, with Verizon and T-Mobile leading in
>all regions.

The conclusion actually reached was:

As a group, the carriers still leave much to be desired, Consumer
Reports editorialized.

They scored only 66 on a scale of 100 for overall satisfaction. ...

In other words, differences were relatively small and not terribly
meaningful.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>