CallQuality
Latest
iPhone 4S customers report 96% satisfaction rate
The iPhone 4S has been out for about six weeks, and owners have had time to learn the ins and outs of the device. ChangeWave wanted to find out what these people thought and asked 215 iPhone 4S owners about their new handset. If you're a long-time iPhone owner, you won't be surprised by the results. The survey reveals an overwhelming number (77 percent) of 4S owners are very satisfied with their handset. This is slightly higher than the 73 percent who said they were very satisfied with the iPhone 4 right after launch. The feature 4S owners liked the most about their handset was Siri. Almost half (49 percent) of those surveyed ranked Siri as the number one feature of the phone. The second and third favorite features were the iPhone's ease of use and its 8-megpixel camera. The iPhone 4S isn't perfect, and a little over a third of those surveyed (38 percent) said battery life was too short. It may be a problem, but most people are not overly bothered by having to charge their phone regularly. Only 8 percent of owners with reduced battery life said it was a very big problem; 20 percent said it was somewhat of a problem. Battery life may be worse, but the dropped call rate has improved significantly. The iPhone 4S dropped call rate is 2.5 percent which is almost half that of the iPhone 4 (5.2 percent). The majority of these dropped calls occurred on AT&T which has a 4.1 percent dropped call rate. Verizon iPhone 4S owners reported only a 1.3 percent dropped call rate. Overall, iPhone owners like their new phone. Even though the diminished battery may be an inconvenience, things like Siri and improved call quality make those little glitches seem bearable. As a current iPhone 4S owner, I would have to agree. [Via AppleInsider]
Verizon iPhone 4 owners report fewer dropped calls than AT&T customers
ChangeWave conducted a survey of 4,068 wireless customers to determine the difference between Verizon iPhone owners and AT&T iPhone owners. The survey was completed on March 28, and it takes into account Verizon owners' initial response to the iPhone's performance on the CDMA network. The results show that, overall, Verizon iPhone owners are equally as satisfied as their AT&T counterparts with 82 percent of Verizon owners and 80 percent of AT&T owners reporting they are very satisfied with their current service. Dropped calls on the two carriers differed greatly with AT&T iPhone customers reporting up to 4.8 percent of dropped calls and Verizon customers coming in with a much lower 1.8 percent. Over the two-year survey, Verizon's overall dropped call rate has decreased from 2.7 percent in 2008 to 1.4 percent in March 2011. AT&T, on the other hand, has shown an increase from 3.6 percent in 2008 to the current 4.6 percent in March 2011. This 4.6 percent is encouraging and shows that AT&T is trying to address this problem. Though its dropped call rate is higher than 2008, this rate is slowly falling down from a high of 6 percent reported by AT&T iPhone owners in September 2010. [Via AppleInsider]
J.D. Power: Verizon has best call quality nationwide, T-Mobile consistently below average
J.D. Power, that well known arbiter of human opinion in the United States, has just released its latest study on customer satisfaction with wireless carriers. It addresses such things as (the lack of) dropped calls, failures to connect, voice distortion, echoes, static, and late-arriving text messages, and ultimately churns out a rating out of five stars relative to the regional average and other carriers. In testing done between July and December last year, Verizon had the best or tied for the best satisfaction ratings in five of the six studied areas, while AT&T and Sprint traded blows for second and T-Mobile had to admit defeat as the laggard of the top four. US Cellular managed to score highest in the North Central region, but J.D. Power's overall assessment isn't very rosy for any of the carriers -- the stats collector says growing smartphone usage, heavy texting and more indoor calls are collectively causing call quality to stagnate, and even warns that "increased adoption of smartphones and wireless tablets may continue to compromise the quality of network service."
iPhone 4's seams explained, ready to solve AT&T call issues? (video)
When we first exposed the iPhone 4 to the world, many of you were skeptical about its authenticity. Frankly, so were we, initially anyway. A device with black seams disrupting its otherwise clean lines just couldn't be from Apple, a company notorious for its obsessive design aesthetic. Well, now that the iPhone 4 is official, Steve took a moment to explain that the stainless steel band is actually an integral part of the iPhone's antenna system -- one part dedicated to Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS; the other larger half to UMTS and GSM. Something that, according to Steve, has never been done before in a phone. We'll have to wait a bit before we know whether this "brilliant engineering" translates into fewer dropped calls for frustrated AT&T customers. But it's hard to imagine that Apple would take the time to show its antennas to developers if there wasn't a downstream reward for consumers. Remember, Steve did say last week that things "should be getting a lot better soon" on AT&T. Click through to hear Apple's loyal software developers ooh and aah over the iPhone's really cool ability to convert electromagnetic radiation into electrical current, and back. Amazing.
Alltel snags lots of gold in recent call quality survey
While Verizon and T-Mobile shared honors in a customer service survey just two months back, it was regional carrier Alltel snagging most of the gold in a recent J.D. Power and Associates survey of wireless call quality. Reportedly, said carrier was able to take the "sole or partial top spot in three of the report's six regions," while Verizon stood on top in two regions, US Cellular in one and T-Mobile (along with Alltel) in another. The data was gathered from 24,570 respondents that were questioned about dropped calls, static / interference, failed connection on the first try, voice distortion, echoes, no immediate voicemail notification, and no immediate text message notification. Interestingly, the study also found that "customers using 3G handsets experienced fewer call quality issues," and while call quality problems reported by folks using CDMA happened around 14 times out of every 100 calls, nearly a quarter of calls from those on the iDEN network were primarily about problems with call quality. Check out the full spill in the read below, we won't tell anyone you're a number lover.
Consumer Reports on iPhone as a Phone
One of the most important things to think about when considering any new cell phone purchase is how well the device in question functions as a phone. Whatever other cool features it may have going for it: Internet access, sms, music and video playback or a camera, you will probably still want to make a few calls with it now and again as well.As a new iPhone user, I'm neither overwhelmed or underwhelmed by the iPhone's ability to make and receive calls or by its call sound quality -- I think its fine. Coming from a Blackberry, for me the iPhone pretty much sounds the same as my old phone, so I'm satisfied with it.. However, Consumer Reports takes a different view of iPhone's voice and call quality. According to the site, the iPhone is "undistinguished at best" when it comes to call voice quality. They also highlight some other shortcomings of the iPhone as a phone including its lack of voice-activated dialing and the lack of an easy method for accessing frequently called numbers.Maybe its me but I don't miss voice dialing and I don't find it very difficult to access frequently needed numbers. Sure, it would be great to just hold down one key to dial a saved number -- as I used to do with my Blackberry -- but the lack of that feature, or the others highlighted in the article, don't really cause me to like the device any less. What you iPhone users out there? How do you think the iPhone rates as a phone?Thanks, Chris.
