AT&T's full response
See below for AT&T's full response to my questions:
Mike--
Here's our statement for your use. We'd really appreciate it if you'd use this in its entirety to ensure all of our context comes across in your column.
You're asking us about perception. What I'd tell you is that when any customer tells us about a problem, we take it seriously and do our best to fix it.
Here are some facts:
Fact: We have been open and honest about the improvements we need to make in such places as New York City and San Francisco. Our efforts are paying off. In New York, for example, our call quality is at around 99 percent, on par with Verizon, as reported most recently in a news release by the testing firm GWS.
Fact: AT&T has the fastest 3G network in the U.S. even as we handle nearly 50 percent of wireless data traffic in the U.S. and have seen a 5000 percent increase in wireless data usage over the last three years.
Fact: AT&T's call retainability is within two-tenths of a percent of the market leader.
Fact: AT&T's churn, the surest indicator of real customer satisfaction, is at record-low and industry leading levels.
Fact: AT&T is the leader in smartphones, with twice as many smartphone customers as the nearest competitor.
Fact: We have the industry's broadest and richest array of handsets, including quick messaging devices.
Fact: AT&T plans to invest $18-$19 billion this year to continue to improve and upgrade our broadband networks. This includes an additional $2 billion for wireless improvements.
The company also subsequently added:
Mike-
I'd also ask you to look very carefully at our response to the ChangeWave survey that you call out in your note to me - I see it completely differently. A survey popped up out of the blue -- and in covering the news, people were not taking a step back to look at how this firm came up with its figures. We wanted to share findings from some testing that was done with far more rigor so that consumers would
make up their own mind. Anyone who calls us (or visits our Facebook page or talks to a store rep or uses our Mark the Spot app) knows that we are very interested in hearing issues our customers have so we best use the resources we're putting toward improving a network that's already leading the way to the future of wireless data and calling.
