Poll results: What's the worst phone carrier in the US?
Last week, we gave you the chance to vote for what you think is the worst phone carrier in the US. Hopefully this gave you space to let out some complaints, while providing some useful information to help users decide which one to go for.
Without further ado, winning by a mile (losing may be a more fitting word to use) was Sprint with 36% of the vote. But, is this fair? Verizon, of course, remains the largest carrier in the US, and Sprint upped their game last month by offering a year of unlimited service to Verizon customers, however, it seems that this hasn't swayed opinions or provided enough temptation for people to switch yet.
Interestingly, despite being the largest carrier, Verizon came in second with 18% off the vote. This may be due to other carriers having better network coverage, data plans, and customer service as you suggested in the comments. Clearly, people have different opinions and expectations, and this can be dependent upon where you live due to varying network coverage for example.
From the comments, it's evident that it's important to avoid unexpected charges at the end of the month, ensuring that you stay within your limits, and making use of Wi-Fi calling is one great tool you can use to do this. Also, customer service is nice to have, and if you are not restricted by a contract, it means you have the power to switch carriers whenever you please. Awful customer service seems to be a common theme, however.
Are you surprised by these results?
Well, I've been with Sprint for well over 15 years, and I've never had anything to really complain about. I've traveled all over the USA too, and never had major service issues while away. Currently I get LTE download speeds averaging 60+ mbps and often hit the mid to high 80's. Obviously, not everyone gets this kind of experience, but, with unlimited, being a long time customer, none of my streaming is ever reduced. They sent me an email, just to let me know. Customer appreciation 😁
My wife and I have been with Straight Talk (on separate accounts) for 5 years. We have never had a service issue or a billing issue. We have purchased and activated several phones on-line from them without any issues. Our phones have the Verizon sim cards and we are able to coverage where other family members using other carriers can not.
I've been with straight talk, about 4 years...never had an issue. 10GB is plenty for what I use, I use the at&t tower sim card.
I've stuck with Bell Canada for its network: well ahead of all the smiley hahahas and phone or bandwidth deals is Job One functionality as primary reliable emergency communicator in this big country. I've never been tempted to save a nickel on a lousy network. Being with the same former landline, now ISP and telco service for 30 years, you get a collection of back-door service numbers and if there's a problem usually these bypass first line South Asian support and sales call and wait centers.
So in this world, there obviously is an unwritten rule all mobile network operators must obey. In the beginning, in each country, they met in a dark cave, only lit by black smoke billowing torches. There, they drew straws, and whoever got the short end had to be the assigned "bad carrier". Obviously, in the U. S. this has to be Sprint, but in the UK as well as here in Germany, it's O2. Crappy network quality, and no hotline contact prior to a waiting time of at least one hour...