J.D. Power and Associates has announced that it has ranked Verizon Wireless highest in network quality over all of the company's competitors in terms of wireless service in the mobile phone market.
In the most recent J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Wireless Performance Study, assessments were carried out to analyze network quality in terms of voice, text and data usage. Verizon Wireless ranked highest in five out of six national regions and scored above average in the sixth region. The study was carried out between January and June of this year.
"Based on varying degrees of consistency with overall network performance, it's critical that wireless carriers continue to invest in improving both the voice quality and data connection-related issues that customers continue to experience," Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates said in a statement.
The global marketing and information services company surveyed 27,000 wireless customers about their wireless network experiences across the country. The survey examined customer satisfaction with wireless voice, text and data usage based on performance factors including: dropped calls, calls not connected on the first try, calls with audio problems, failed voicemails, lost calls, message transmission failures, mobile Web connection errors and slow mobile Web loading.
Verizon Wireless came in as the number one contender in the following regions: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, West and Southwest. In the North Central region, the company still scored well above the industry average.
"This latest study once again speaks loudly and clearly to the outstanding performance of the Verizon Wireless network in terms of customer satisfaction," Nicola Palmer, chief technical officer of Verizon Wireless said in a statement. "Verizon Wireless remains committed to providing its customers with the best networks, devices and innovative services.
Verizon Wireless says it invests somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 billion annually to increase coverage and capacity of its network and to add new services. The company's vast 4G LTE network covers approximately 75 percent of the U.S. population and supports a good number of 4G LTE-enabled devices.
"With the network advantages of using 4G LTE technology, in terms of spectrum efficiencies and increase in data connection speeds and reliability, it's not unexpected that wireless carriers are rushing to expand and upgrade their networks to align with this latest generation of service," Parsons said in a statement.
Looking toward the future, Verizon Wireless has recently said that it will offer its 4G LTE services on the new iPhone 5, to come out in mid-September reportedly. AT&T, MetroPCS and T-Mobile USA have also announced plans to offer 4G capabilities to its customers that are eagerly awaiting the new iPhone release.