How Cellular Services Rank On Complaints

March 29, 2005
How Cellular Services Rank On Complaints
Cingular Tops FCC List With Most Gripes Per Customer; Dropped Calls,
Billing Errors
By LI YUAN and JESSE DRUCKER
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

When Cingular Wireless completed its acquisition of AT&T Wireless
Services Inc. in October, it created the nation's largest
cellular-service provider.

It also created the wireless carrier with the country's highest
customer-complaint rate.

The new Cingular Wireless, boasting of expanded coverage from two
networks, has been adding new subscribers at fast clip. It now serves
more than 50 million customers.

But Cingular's rate of complaints -- on everything from billing,
marketing to service quality -- was consistently higher than
competitors in the fourth quarter, the first quarter as a combined
company, according to complaints received by the Federal Communications
Commission and obtained by The Wall Street Journal through a Freedom of
Information Act request.

Cingular Wireless had a rate of 4.6 complaints per 100,000 customers.
The rate of complaints for T-Mobile USA Inc., a unit of Deutsche
Telekom AG, was next highest at 4.3 per 100,000 customers. Sprint Corp.
and Nextel Communications Inc. -- which announced plans to merge in
December -- posted complaint rates of 3.6 and 2.3 per 100,000
customers, respectively. By comparison, Verizon Wireless, a joint
venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of the
U.K., and the nation's second-largest cellphone operator, had the
lowest rate of complaints, with 1.4 per 100,000 customers. Verizon
declined to comment.

Both T-Mobile and Sprint declined to comment on the FCC complaint
figure, but both said they will focus on customer satisfaction. A
Nextel spokesman said, "We're always looking to improve service of our
customers."

By the end of 2004, Cingular had 49.1 million customers. Verizon
Wireless had 43.8 million. Sprint, including its affiliates, had 21
million. Nextel had 15 million. T-Mobile had 17.3 million.

The FCC provided the total complaint figures, but the rate was
calculated by the Journal. (The rate for Sprint was calculated
including its affiliates.) The FCC cautioned that the existence of a
complaint doesn't necessarily indicate wrongdoing by a carrier.

At the time the Cingular/AT&T Wireless merger was announced last year,
Cingular Chief Executive Stan Sigman said the deal "will mean better
coverage, improved reliability, enhanced call quality and a wide array"
of new services.

But with the two large companies just starting to merge operations,
networks and customer databases, some Cingular customers had to undergo
the pain and the costs of the merger. Cingular officials maintain that
the problems are few and far between given how many customers receive
their service.

"While we take each complaint very seriously and are always striving
for improvement, the number of complaints represents an infinitesimally
small portion of our customer base," Cingular spokesman Ritch Blasi
said. He acknowledged that there could be some engineering problems
during the process of combining the two systems that may cause worse
coverage for some customers, but emphasized that the issue isn't
widespread.

Despite a multibillion-dollar investment by the wireless industry on
network upgrades and advertisements trumpeting the latest features,
many consumers remain frustrated with their cellphone service. Spotty
service coverage and incomprehensible bills are still the bane of many
subscribers.

Dropped calls and dead zones can result from a variety of factors:
insufficient investment in the network; heavy calling traffic at busy
times of the day; and complicated zoning laws that make it difficult to
place cellphone towers in areas that would lead to better coverage.

For the industry as a whole, complaints in all of 2004 were up nearly
38% from 2003, according to the Consumers Union, a consumer-advocacy
group that released a study on cellphone complaints yesterday. That
increase outpaced the rate of U.S. subscriber growth, which increased
roughly 14% to 180.5 million users in 2004, according to the Cellular
Telecommunications and Internet Association.

Cellular service has lower levels of overall customer satisfaction than
for most other services the Consumers Union measures, such as hotels,
retail outlets and insurance. In its annual cellular-subscriber survey
conducted last fall in 17 major cities, the group found that nearly 60%
of those who use a cellphone frequently said they had a bad connection.

Some industry analysts say that the high complaint rate at Cingular
could be related to the complexity of merging two carriers' networks.
However, the most complaints arose from billing problems as things like
roaming charges and complex fees make cellular bills incomprehensible
to many customers.

The complaint rate at both Cingular and AT&T Wireless was higher than
competitors even before the merger, the FCC data show.

Given the size of the wireless market, the number of FCC complaints is
relatively small, as few consumers take the trouble of actually filing
a complaint to a federal government agency. Many consumers instead
register their displeasure with Web sites such as planetfeedback.com or
escapecellhell.org by the Consumers Union.

For Gary Myers and his wife, Nancy, of McMinniville, Ore., their AT&T
Wireless service worked fine until last winter, about the time of the
merger.

By mid-March, Mr. Myers couldn't get a signal in some parts of his
28,000-population town. When he called AT&T Wireless customer service,
a representative told him that the Myerses need to get new Cingular GSM
phones to get better coverage. Though the phones are free after a
rebate, the Myerses will be charged for $18 activation fees for each
line and their contract will be extended for another term. "I'm done
with both of them," Mr. Myers said.

Mr. Blasi of Cingular confirmed that the company charges a fee to move
AT&T Wireless customers over to the Cingular network. Current AT&T
Wireless customers will get better coverage by upgrading their phones,
he said, and many people are making the move to get slicker handsets.

In areas where Cingular has redundant coverage capacity, the carrier is
planning to remove 8,000 cell sites, or 18% of the total, by June 2006
and install them in areas where AT&T Wireless and Cingular didn't have
any coverage before, Mr. Blasi said.

Mr. Blasi adds that in very few cases customers may experience worse
coverage than before because their phones are connected to a cell site
that may be farther away than where their original cell site was. He
said the problems will be solved once Cingular finished the integration
of two networks by June 2006.

Before the merger, both Cingular and AT&T Wireless were in the process
of upgrading their networks from an older technology, called TDMA, to a
new technology called GSM. Plus, most major carriers have started or
announced plans to upgrade their networks yet again to accommodate
higher speed, so-called third generation, or 3G, wireless services,
such as wireless Web browsing.

Cingular is investing $6 billion to enhance its networks in 2005, and
the overwhelming majority of that will be spent on the GSM network,
said Mr. Blasi of Cingular. About 80% of minutes of use for all
Cingular customers go to GSM network while the rest go to TDMA network.
Mr. Blasi insists that Cingular will continue maintaining the TDMA
network. But industry analysts believe that Cingular is investing close
to nothing on it because it is more cost effective to maintain one
network rather than two.

With two networks AT&T Wireless and Cingular customers may not
experience as many dead spots, but removing cell sites can be tricky,
said Jonathan Atkin of RBC Capital Markets.

DROPPED CALLS

Here are the rates of complaints made in the fourth quarter to the FCC
as calculated by the Journal:

· Cingular Wireless had 4.6 complaints per 100,000 customers.

· T-Mobile USA Inc. was next at 4.3 complaints.

· Merging partners Sprint PCS and Nextel Communications Inc. had
rates of 3.6 and 2.3, respectively.

· Verizon Wireless had the fewest with 1.4 complaints.

---

› See More: How Cellular Services Rank On Complaints

Sounds like you were in a non cdma area and using AMPS. Same complaints
are true using Cingular in nonGSM areas.

Problem with trying Cingular for 30 day is when they just cut services
in areas with no notice. I used Cingular /BSM for 10+ yrs and they just
turn off service in a Verizon only State.

DoctorZ wrote:
> Sounds like you were in a non cdma area and using AMPS. Same complaints
> are true using Cingular in nonGSM areas.
>
> Problem with trying Cingular for 30 day is when they just cut services
> in areas with no notice. I used Cingular /BSM for 10+ yrs and they just
> turn off service in a Verizon only State.

Where, if I may ask? (Just curious. See, "just turning off" cellular service in
an entire state seems like it would get Cingular into a ton of trouble.)



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4.6 out of 100,000 is pretty damn good.

> Cingular Wireless had a rate of 4.6 complaints per 100,000
customers.
--
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In article <[email protected]>,
Ben <[email protected]> wrote:

> 4.6 out of 100,000 is pretty damn good.


It would be if that were actually == ALL == the complaints.

It's mere;y those that reach the FCC.


>
> > Cingular Wireless had a rate of 4.6 complaints per 100,000
> customers.

> Sounds like you were in a non cdma area and using AMPS. Same complaints
> are true using Cingular in nonGSM areas.
>
> Problem with trying Cingular for 30 day is when they just cut services
> in areas with no notice. I used Cingular /BSM for 10+ yrs and they just
> turn off service in a Verizon only State.

If it's a Verizon only state, maybe Verizon made the decision to not
allow Cingular roamers on the network after a roaming agreement expired?

>>4.6 out of 100,000 is pretty damn good.
>
> It would be if that were actually == ALL == the complaints.
>
> It's mere;y those that reach the FCC.

ALL complaints = 100% of users. ALL users have at least one complaint,
no matter how minor it may.

In article <[email protected]>,
Tropical Haven <[email protected]> wrote:

> > Sounds like you were in a non cdma area and using AMPS. Same complaints
> > are true using Cingular in nonGSM areas.
> >
> > Problem with trying Cingular for 30 day is when they just cut services
> > in areas with no notice. I used Cingular /BSM for 10+ yrs and they just
> > turn off service in a Verizon only State.
>
> If it's a Verizon only state, maybe Verizon made the decision to not
> allow Cingular roamers on the network after a roaming agreement expired?

Or maybe Cingular decided to save a buck and not renew the roaming
agreement?

In article <[email protected]>,
Tropical Haven <[email protected]> wrote:

> >>4.6 out of 100,000 is pretty damn good.
> >
> > It would be if that were actually == ALL == the complaints.
> >
> > It's mere;y those that reach the FCC.
>
> ALL complaints = 100% of users. ALL users have at least one complaint,
> no matter how minor it may.

and your complaint with Cingular is.......

I wonder how Tracphone ranks.


W : )

Jack Zwick wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Tropical Haven <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>>Sounds like you were in a non cdma area and using AMPS. Same complaints
>>>are true using Cingular in nonGSM areas.
>>>
>>>Problem with trying Cingular for 30 day is when they just cut services
>>>in areas with no notice. I used Cingular /BSM for 10+ yrs and they just
>>>turn off service in a Verizon only State.
>>
>>If it's a Verizon only state, maybe Verizon made the decision to not
>>allow Cingular roamers on the network after a roaming agreement expired?
>
>
> Or maybe Cingular decided to save a buck and not renew the roaming
> agreement?

If it's a roaming agreement, that's most likely not the case. Since
Cingular doesn't do CDMA and Verizon Wireless does neither GSM nor TDMA,
raoming agreements between the two are minimal.

tH

Jack Zwick wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Tropical Haven <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>>>4.6 out of 100,000 is pretty damn good.
>>>
>>>It would be if that were actually == ALL == the complaints.
>>>
>>>It's mere;y those that reach the FCC.
>>
>>ALL complaints = 100% of users. ALL users have at least one complaint,
>>no matter how minor it may.
>
>
> and your complaint with Cingular is.......

They allowed you on as a customer.

In article <[email protected]>,
Tropical Haven <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> Jack Zwick wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > Tropical Haven <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>>Sounds like you were in a non cdma area and using AMPS. Same complaints
> >>>are true using Cingular in nonGSM areas.
> >>>
> >>>Problem with trying Cingular for 30 day is when they just cut services
> >>>in areas with no notice. I used Cingular /BSM for 10+ yrs and they just
> >>>turn off service in a Verizon only State.
> >>
> >>If it's a Verizon only state, maybe Verizon made the decision to not
> >>allow Cingular roamers on the network after a roaming agreement expired?
> >
> >
> > Or maybe Cingular decided to save a buck and not renew the roaming
> > agreement?
>
> If it's a roaming agreement, that's most likely not the case. Since
> Cingular doesn't do CDMA and Verizon Wireless does neither GSM nor TDMA,
> raoming agreements between the two are minimal.

Duh, how come you "accidently" forgot analog???

In article <[email protected]>,
Tropical Haven <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> Jack Zwick wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > Tropical Haven <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>>>4.6 out of 100,000 is pretty damn good.
> >>>
> >>>It would be if that were actually == ALL == the complaints.
> >>>
> >>>It's mere;y those that reach the FCC.
> >>
> >>ALL complaints = 100% of users. ALL users have at least one complaint,
> >>no matter how minor it may.
> >
> >
> > and your complaint with Cingular is.......
>
> They allowed you on as a customer.

And my complaint is they have you as a shill.

Cingular is in trouble. Highest complaint rate for 2004 and from my
personal experience 2005 will be much worse. Any person that has
started a business will tell you word of mouth makes or kills your
business.

You are right I am sure there are some small pockets of coverage in NC,
although Cingular 2nd level support told me the nearest area with
coverage was GA. I checked with the store and its still GSM only phones
offered in Atlanta, which makes them useless for customers requiring
national coverage.