Apple Thoughts: AT&T Begrudgingly Releases Dropped Call Statistics

"While Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs said AT&T wouldn't let him reveal its proprietary data about dropped call statistics for competitive reasons, the mobile provider has revealed some numbers in an effort to defend its network from poor dropped call scores collected by ChangeWave."

image(s) credit: CanStockPhoto

Very interesting article! Reminds me of the stories that I've heard and read about business metrics and statistics: "... we don't like these numbers that we're seeing; let's commission another company to collect information from subscribers to see how we're REALLY doing." AT&T wasn't particularly pleased with the results of a study from ChangeWave showing that their rate of dropped calls was higher than the competition. This was a survey of 4,040 smartphone users who were asked to report their own percentage of calls dropped. Is 4,040 users a statistically valid sample?

Another study contradicted this first set of results, and showed that AT&T's reliability was much, much closer to the industry leaders, or to use real world data, was a "difference of less than two (2) calls [dropped] out of 1,000." The study emphasized that location (cell tower proximity) is a major factor in call quality and reliability, so, the bottom line is that calls will get dropped, especially in areas of "lesser" coverage.