Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

Consumer Reports Survey Again Reveals That It Won’t Be on AT&T’s Christmas Card List

Consumer Reports is out with its ratings of cellphone service providers and once again AT&T finds itself at the bottom of the pack while Verizon ranked highest among the big four national carriers.

That’s the same overall conclusion the magazine has been coming to for a while now.

That said, there was some good news for AT&T this year as its high-speed 4G LTE network got the highest marks in the survey, above rival Verizon Wireless whose network has been around longer and covers more places.

Verizon, though, had the top overall score when including voice and data service quality as well as customer-support marks.

Consumer Reports also pointed out that customers looking to save money can often do better by going with a prepaid carrier, even when factoring in the fact people have to pay more initially for their device. Two-thirds of prepaid carrier customers surveyed said they were saving $20 or more each month.

“Some smaller carriers that scored respectably in our Ratings and offer low-priced plans, such as Straight Talk and Virgin Mobile, now offer fairly sophisticated smart phones,” Consumer Reports electronics editor Paul Reynolds said in a statement. “And you can even save by switching a phone from a major carrier that’s coming off contract to a prepaid plan.”

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work