This Is the Least Reliable Cell Phone Company in America

Updated: Oct. 25, 2022

If you’re constantly dropping calls and waiting forever for webpages to load, you might have this cell phone provider.

Could you imagine your life without your cell phone? We’re guessing no—our phones have basically become another limb for many of us. Everyone is constantly streaming, talking, texting, or surfing the web at all hours of the day so, having a reliable cell phone company is important. And if you want to avoid a situation where you throw your phone onto the ground in frustration, you’re going to want to steer clear of one cell phone company in particular. Watch out for these red flags that someone is tracking your cell phone.

RootMetrics gathered data on the four major cell phone providers—Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile—to see which one had the best overall performance. They tested call, data, and text reliability in all 50 states and across 125 of the most populated metropolitan markets. Sprint consistently fell behind the other carriers in the majority of the metrics. Verizon came out on top, AT&T took second place, and T-Mobile came in third. If you’re tired of paying for data overages, try these tricks to use less data and lower your cell phone bill.

Sprint did improve in ranking for network reliability. It beat out T-Mobile in that category. Another category Sprint beat T-Mobile in was text performance and Sprint was only a few points behind Verizon, which came in second in that category.

However, Sprint does have one of the cheapest phone plans, but the low cost can backfire when you’re lost in the middle of nowhere and your map app won’t work. So sadly, Sprint customers, that dead zone in your house or at your office is likely because of your cell phone provider.

Sources:

  • RootMetrics: “Review of the US Mobile Landscape 1H 2019: carrier performance at national, state, and metro levels”
  • Tom’s Guide: “Best unlimited data plans in 2020”