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Cellular Carrier Ratings
The higher the score, the better. Ratings are based on our opinion of how the
National wireless carriers perform, and at
what price. The better the coverage, or the
lower the price, the better the 'score'.
We take into account Coverage, Pricing, Roaming
Partners, Frequency, Customer Service, and
Features. Comments about each carrier's rating
are detailed below.
| Carrier |
On-Network
Coverage |
Off-Network
Coverage |
Cost |
Customer Service |
Total |
| Alltel |
6 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
15 |
| AT&T |
5 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
12 |
| Cricket |
3 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
10 |
| Nextel |
5 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
10 |
| Sprint |
4 |
5 |
2 |
1 |
12 |
| T-Mobile |
4 |
4# |
3 |
3 |
14 |
| US Cellular |
5 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
14 |
| Verizon |
6 |
5 |
1 |
3 |
15 |
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KEY:
On-Network Coverage: (1 = worst, 6 = best) How much area the
carrier covers with all services, and within
their own service area, how good the coverage
is.
Off-Network Coverage: (0 = none, 5 = best) How much area is covered
by roaming partners.
Cost: (1 = least value, 3 = most value) How much
you get for your money.
Customer Service: 1 = Below, 2 = Average, 3 = Above
Additional Comments
Click on the carrier's name to read our review.
- ALLTEL is among the best, and only suffers from
having "average" customer service.
There are some worries about roaming coverage
because Alltel phones prefer Sprint when away from the Alltel network.
- AT&T gets lower marks for their poor, or variable,
customer service. Also, while they have extensive
roaming agreements, they get a slight deduction
because there are fewer areas of GSM coverage,
especially in the rural west. In some parts
of the country AT&T deserves a better score for on-network coverage,
but they suffer in the western half of the
country.
- CRICKET is available in 26 states and is primarily
an "Unlimited" carrier. They are
new and still suffer from a lack of Local
coverage.
- NEXTEL gets low marks for their inability to roam
on few, if any, other networks.
- SPRINT gets a slightly lower rating for coverage
due to its strictly PCS (1900 MHz) frequency,
however, they partly make up for it with
excellent roaming capabilities.
- T-MOBILE gets credit for optimizing their all-PCS
(1900 MHz) network better than others, but
is penalized for fewer roaming abilities.
#This rating applies to users with dual-band
(850 MHz-capable) equipment.
- US CELLULAR Gets a slight drop for their mixture of
Cellular and PCS coverage, and slightly fewer
roaming agreements.
- VERIZON gets good marks across the board, but a
slight hit for being just a little
more expensive.
Their customer service department
actually
closes at 11pm (but not if you have
a technical
problem), but makes up for it with
excellent
customer service.
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