AT&T was the only wireless carrier to show a significant decrease in satisfaction ratings in the survey, which was conducted by Consumer Reports. Verizon and Sprint are neck-and-neck for many points of satisfaction, but for contract service, U.S. Cellular was the top-rated provider.
Consumer Reports' survey, which encompassed all versions of Apple's popular smartphone series, "found that iPhone owners were much less satisfied with their carrier and rated data service (web and e-mail) lower than owners of smartphones on other carriers."
The common scapegoat for AT&T-related woes is the heavy data usage of app-happy iPhone users; however, as other smartphone platforms take over other networks, complaints around the same issue aren't nearly as prevalent for those networks.
Another factor is that other networks are ahead of AT&T in offering 4G capabilities to their customers.
This news could be especially bad for AT&T if the rumored Verizon iPhone hits stores as anticipated in early 2011.
In fact, in a recent Mashable poll about the Verizon iPhone, 17.33% of almost 10,000 respondents who were current AT&T customers said they would switch carriers to get that specific device on that specific network.
How would you rate AT&T, if you are currently using that carrier? Let it all out in the comments.