Wireless call quality improving

survey on the prepaid wireless industry. It was a favorable one, showing improvement in nearly every category since the last survey. Now it’s time to judge the call quality of the major carriers. And guess what? The results are pretty much the same. Wireless call quality continues to improve, and improve significantly in some areas.

Now in its fifth year, the semi-annual study measures wireless call quality based on seven customer-reported problem areas that impact overall carrier performance: dropped calls; static/interference; failed connection on the first try; voice distortion; echoes; no immediate voice mail notification; and no immediate text message notification.

The survey is measured in problems per 100, which makes it very easy to note percentage increases and drops. Overall, call quality is improving, as problems per 100 dropped 29 percent from the 2006 survey. The areas of greatest improvement were “dropped calls, initial disconnects, and interference/static.” From the March 2007 survey, initial disconnects have fallen 40 percent, and dropped calls have dropped 33 percent. Yes, AT&T was included in this survey. Interestingly, but logically, those who use Bluetooth or other hands-free devices see more problems than those who don’t use them. And it’s not the product that causes the problems, but rather the average call volume of hands-free users.

“One reason for this rating difference is the fact that owners of hands-free devices tend to make calls more often than do those who don’t use these devices, and high-volume callers are more likely to experience call quality problems in general,” said [Kirk] Parsons [senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates]. “As more wireless subscribers begin using hands-free devices for convenience, the rate of call quality problems may increase as the probability rises for quality interference between the headset and cell phone.”

Also included in the survey is call quality index for various regions of the US. We won’t go into the specific numbers, since we don’t know exactly what they mean. But we’ll go over the winners and losers in each one. Northeast Winner: Verizon Loser: T-Mobile Mid-Atlantic Winner: Verizon Loser: AT&T — as residents of this region, we couldn’t agree more Southeast Winner: Alltel and Verizon (tie) Loser: AT&T North Central Winner: U.S. Cellular Loser: Sprint Southwest Winner: AT&T Loser: Verizon West Winner: Verizon Loser: AT&T So yeah, maybe Verizon’s claims of being America’s largest network aren’t so false after all. And maybe AT&T’s claims of having the fewest dropped calls (or, now, the most bars in the most places) is misleading. [CNN Money]]]>