The last of the second volume of JD Power reports for 2013 has just arrived and needless to say, it’s a mixed message for T-Mobile. The Wireless Network Quality semi-annual Performance Study “evaluates wireless customers’ most recent usage activities in three areas that impact network performance: calling, messaging and data. Overall network performance is based on 10 problem areas that impact the customer experience: dropped calls; calls not connected; audio issues; failed/late voicemails; lost calls; text transmission failures; late text message notifications; Web connection errors; slow downloads; and email connection errors. Network performance issues are measured as problems per 100 (PP100) network connections, with a lower score reflecting fewer problems and better network performance. Carrier performance is examined in six geographic regions: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, North Central, Southwest and West.”
That’s quite a mouthful, but JD Power awards are something T-Mobile once took a lot of pride in and I’m hopeful they are on the right track to get that streak going once again. For the time being however, the most recent study shows T-Mobile still has some work to do to capture more awards as they rank third or fourth in all the six regions JD Power examines.
For the most part, Verizon unsurprisingly ran the table with only US Cellular knocking them off their pedestal in the North Central region. US Cellular took the top spot in that region for the 16th consecutive study, something we’d like to see T-Mobile do once again. The current state of JD Power over the course of 2013 continues to show that T-Mobile has room for improvement in just about every area, including network performance, customer service and wireless purchase experience.
I have no doubt T-Mobile CEO John Legere is looking at these studies and already snapping his lieutenants into action. Hopefully this time next year we’ll see a much improved ranking for our favorite carrier.
The 2013 U.S. Wireless Network Quality Performance Study–Volume 2 is based on responses from 26,491 wireless customers. The study was fielded between January and June 2013.
