By Nathalie Voit
Wireless network quality is declining across the board, according to a 2022 U.S. Wireless Network Quality Performance Study from J.D. Power.
The results of the study, released on July 14, reveal an uptick in network quality issues among consumers and a general perception that overall service from wireless network providers is deteriorating.
“An uptick in wireless and device usage was bound to catch up to network quality,” the report’s managing director at J.D. Power, Ian Greenblatt, said. “Wireless customers are increasingly adept in data usage and streaming, meaning they’re less inspired and more aware of problems.
The report gauged overall carrier performance based on how many problems per (PP100) connections in call quality, messaging quality, and data quality were reported by consumers from January through June this year. The study surveyed 34,174 wireless customers from six regions: Mid-Atlantic, North Central, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and West.
Verizon Wireless made top marks on all three facets of network performance, ranking the highest in five of the six regions evaluated in the study: the MidAtlantic, North Central, Northeast, Southeast, and West regions.
AT&T ranked the highest in the country’s Southwest region, achieving the fewest network quality problems in the region with a score of 11 PP100.
Overall, the most cited problems identified by participants in the study was slow data or the inability to load content.
“While the number of problems is significantly lower when 5G is available, the most influential problems on network quality ratings continue to be streaming audio and video quality, slow loading times, and calls not going through,” Greenblatt said.
