T-Mobile beats down Big Telco rivals in mobile satisfaction survey

Computerworld conducted a 5-week-long online survey in the fall of 2014 asking smartphone users to rate their wireless service providers, and it found that T-Mobile has some of the highest user satisfaction numbers.

Computerworld asked users to rate their providers in a variety of categories: average upload speeds, average download speeds, availability of connection, reliability of connection, performance relative to cost, technical support, selection of phone models and customer service/billing.

But what people care about is upload and download speeds, so I’ll skip the other stuff and go right to the meat of Computerworld’s report.

T-Mobile users were most satisfied with their download speeds, with a 65 percent satisfaction rate, followed by AT&T at 62 percent and Verizon at 59 percent. Sprint users were only 43 percent satisfied with their upload speeds. Computerworld says all four carriers’ download speed satisfaction ratings dropped somewhat year over year, with the biggest drops coming from Verizon, which went from first place and a 71 percent satisfaction rating to third place with just 59 percent.

For upload speeds, T-Mobile won again, with 61 percent of customers saying they were at least somewhat satisfied. Fifty-six percent of AT&T customers were satisfied, and Verizon had a 52 percent satisfaction rate. Only 32 percent of Sprint customers said they were satisfied.

Overall, Computerworld found that less than half of all mobile customers are satisfied with the value — the amount of data service quality for the price — they’re getting their providers. But here again, T-Mobile customers are the outlier. A surprising 70 percent of them say they are at least partly satisfied with the value of the service.

Sprint customers are most satisfied with the selection of phones offered by their carrier, at 81 percent. AT&T follows with 78 percent; Verizon had 76 percent, and T-Mobile customers were 75 percent satisfied.

Computerworld says it surveyed a total of 652 wireless users.