BACKGROUND RESEARCH

The first place I looked for the answer to our question of what cell phone service is most popular among NOHS students, was Google. I typed in the key words “cell phone service rating” and I chose the second non-sponsored link. It was an article on ratings in quality more than what is the most popular. Overall the article stated that Verizon Wireless had the best call quality, whereas T-Mobile was a close second. In the customer service category, T-Mobile took first with Verizon Wireless a close second.

http://www.consumersearch.com/www/electronics/cell-phone-plans/index.html

Another Google search we conducted used the keywords of “Cell phone provider survey’s.” This brought up a website that simulated the same survey that we plan to conduct, using thirty five people. Among the thirty five, nine had Verizon Wireless, nine had AT&T/Cingular, seven had sprint, four had T-Mobile, three had Metro PCS, two had Nextel, and one had Working Assets. When the sample of thirty-five gave their input in satisfaction and Verizon Wireless seemed to have the best reviews, giving them the win.

http://www.noevalleyvoice.com/2005/February/Cell.html

Another site we clicked on from the previous Google search was linked to TechWeb.com. They also conducted a survey containing nearly forty-three thousand people, a much larger sample size. In their survey they questioned customer satisfaction, call quality, and dropped calls. They even said that forty-five percent of the people that responded to this survey responded via text messaging. Verizon won the survey’s majority in the overall rating. T-Mobile took second, and surprisingly Cingular was close to the bottom in overall satisfaction.

http://www.techweb.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196601406&cid=RSSfeed_TechWeb

            Putting in the keywords “Cell Phone Carrier Survey”, I pulled up an article on About.com that pertained to customer service and cell phone carriers. The article stated that Verizon and Nextel both had high ratings in customer service while Sprint PCS held down at the bottom.

http://cellphones.about.com/b/a/022070.htm

Under the previous keywords, an article on the site consumeraffairs.com saying that of thirty-nine thousand subscribers, the satisfaction rates are lower that what they seem. As previously stated, Verizon holds the top, but in this survey ten out of seventeen cities did not have Verizon Wireless as their top choice. 35% of people were said to have been considering changing their carriers. 70% of people have had one dropped call per week, 40% said they had a good experience with a billing inquiry, and 31% said they had a good experience with a service inquiry. The survey also says that the merger of AT&T with Cingular did not help their overloaded circuits. 48% of the sample surveyed stated that it was hard to compare their service with another, and 43% said it was hard to figure out the true cost of their service.