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Survey suggests Verizon's iPhone customers more satisfied than AT&T's

by Chris Ward Mar 24th 2011 at 9:45AM

A survey of the differences between AT&T and Verizon iPhone customers shows what we knew all along: many AT&T iPhone customers are quite fed up with the phone network.

All the main points in the Mobclix survey of iPhone users (taken in February) reinforce the conclusion:

  • The larger and more densely populated the city -- and hence the more overcrowded AT&T's network -- the more likely iPhone users are to have switched to Verizon. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, New York City and Boston have the highest Verizon iPhone usage.
  • AT&T iPhone users resort to Wi-Fi 53% of the time, compared with just 38% for Verizon users. AT&T users do, however, get free automatic access to the company's 24,000 Wi-Fi hotspots included in their subscription.
  • The top three reasons cited for switching to Verizon were reception issues, personal Wi-Fi hotspot availability on Verizon (only recently introduced by AT&T) and reputation.
  • Most damning of all, a massive two-thirds of those switching from AT&T to Verizon were willing to pay the $325 early termination fee demanded by the iPhone's original network provider.

A full 14% of iPhone 4 users are on the Verizon network now, but adding in users of earlier models brings this down to just 4% of iPhone users on Verizon.

Of course, plenty of AT&T users are happy with the service they get on their iPhone, but it's clear that many couldn't wait for the day they could get an iPhone on Verizon. Perhaps this situation will change in a year or two if iPhone users on AT&T also get access to T-Mobile's network.

Personally, I'm very happy to live in a country (France) where, by law, the iPhone is available on all mobile phone networks, and hence overcrowding simply isn't an issue.

[Via TechCrunch]



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9 Comments

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cricket52557

Well, I used to use Verizon and I hope I never have to go back. I live in a rural area and I get great phone service and 3g speeds with my iPhone 3GS. Verizon will tell you one price to sell you the phone and wireless plan and then it will be much more when you get your bill. AT&T told me what it would be a month and that is what it was. That means a lot to me. Honesty in business is rare. When I find it in a company, I stick with them.

March 24 2011 at 7:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Martin

Verizon iPhone owners are also still on their honeymoon with the device. A year from now I think the tune will change.

March 24 2011 at 7:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tom Payne

I appreciate stories like this. It lets me know just how much leverage I might have come June when my current contract expires.

If AT&T is having customer retention problems, we as the consumer have a little more of the power a customer should have in an open & free market, not this duopoly that takes choice and competition away. Imagine how much leverage we'd have it there was more than 1 GSM provider like they have in the UK & Europe.

So please keep these stories coming. If enough people are switching, maybe I can get AT&T to allow me to tether for free, which they should be doing anyway.

March 24 2011 at 1:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
yoinkers

Strange how easy it was for me to find a Verizon iPad 2, yet I couldn't get an AT&T one to save my life.

AT&T and Verizon are despicable companies that we should all dislike, but AT&T service is just fine where I live and I haven't had trouble anywhere but San Francisco when I visited. Seriously, the SF problems are more likely tied to the regulatory hurdles a company must go through to add infrastructure.

The vast majority of us outside of silicon valley just don't care whether it's AT&T or Verizon, I think we just hate cell phone companies. Remember how Verizon used to cripple their phones and how they were the first to up the early termination fees on their subsidized phones? Despicable acts and anti consumer.

March 24 2011 at 11:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matthew W.

Sigh...okay, we get it. How many more of these "AT&T bad" articles do we have to read before you let it go? TUAW never has anything nice to say about AT&T, ever. You don't like them, fine, now move on.

March 24 2011 at 10:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Matthew W.'s comment
Ben

This.

If they don't like AT&T, great, I don't care. I am personally fine with AT&T, but I understand others are not satisfied. That doesn't mean we need so many articles about it.

March 24 2011 at 11:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott R

A big part of the issue in the US is CDMA- vs. GSM-based technology divide. Does France have two (or more) fundamentally incompatible wireless networks?

March 24 2011 at 10:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Scott R's comment
Pixelmatsch

France, same as the whole of Europe, is a happy GSM-family-of-networks country. (Not counting some small regional CDMA networks here and there that exist only for data usage.) No big divide here and most importantly: a healthy market of unsubsidised phones.

March 24 2011 at 12:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Julian

You know that the total iPhone users number is probably accounting internatinal users, right? I have not seen any clarification on the subject though.

March 24 2011 at 10:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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