Survey grades phone makers, service providers

A new survey of 4,700 American consumers has passed out grades on the satisfaction people feel about their phone makers and wireless carriers. As a rule, makers are viewed more favorably than carriers, largely because the carriers get the blame when the network is out or reception is lousy.

Top of the list for makers was Palm, who received an overall grade of B+ (scores were a combination of several factors). Motorola was next with a B, LG scraped by with a C-, while Samsung may have to head to summer school after a D-. Providers were topped by Verizon with a C, followed by Cingular with a C- and Sprint with a D-.

The survey also measured the number of “aspiring users”, the number of people who don’t use a brand now but plan to in the future. Cingular had 5.2 million aspiring users, followed by Verizon with 4.7 million. Interestingly, Sprint, which had the lowest overall grade and has the fewest existing subscribers in this group, had the most aspiring users by a large margin, with 6.9 million.