Report: U.S. mobile users give carriers a D+

According to a report in Consumer Reports, U.S. wireless carriers, as a group, leave much to be desired since they scored only a 66 out of 100 in overall satisfaction from a survey that included 42,900 CR readers' opinions. The magazine ranked the carriers city-by-city in terms of uptime and freedom from static and dropped calls. Here's a look at some of the standings:

• T-Mobile USA ranked first in Denver, San Diego and Seattle and came in third in five other cities.
• Verizon Wireless beat out T-Mobile USA, by ranking first in 14 of the 20 cities it serves and second in the remaining six.
• Cingular took the third place spot in 12 of the 20 cities where it's active, with three second places, four fourth places and one fifth place.
• Sprint ranked the lowest in fourth place for 12 of the 19 cities it serves.
• Alltel, surprisingly, took the top spot in Phoenix, Cleveland and Tampa. That makes it the only other carrier besides T-Mobile and Verizon to take a regional first place.

For more on the Consumer Reports survey:
- see this article [1] from The Seattle Post Intelligencer