Cell one

Verizon Wireless Inc. leads its three local competitors for customer satisfaction on mobile-telephone call quality in New England and New York, according to a new survey by J.D. Power & Associates.

Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Verizon Wireless has topped J.D. Power”™s semiannual comparison of Northeast carriers in three of the past four installments, with T-Mobile the only competitor to crack its hegemony, one year ago.

T-Mobile ranked second in the latest study of call quality, barely ahead of AT&T Inc. and Sprint which tied for last.

In a separate survey in January, J.D. Power ranked T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless the top two carriers for customer service.

J.D. Power surveyed 24,600 wireless customers in September and October last year and this past January. The Westlake Village, Calif., company rates carriers on:

Ӣ dropped calls;

 

Ӣ static and interference;

Ӣ failed connections;

Ӣ voice distortion;

Ӣ echo; and

Ӣ lack of notification for voice and text messages.

 

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Verizon Wireless also led the mid-Atlantic region stretching from New Jersey to Virginia, while Alltel Corp. was tops in three of the other four regions nationally.

Both Verizon Wireless and Alltel use Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology to transfer calls wirelessly.

CDMA technology is generally considered to be more efficient for processing wireless calls as it requires fewer cell sites to handle call volume compared with other wireless platforms, according to Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power.

The Federal Communications Commission last month raised $19.6 billion in an auction of airwaves in the 700 megahertz band, with Verizon Wireless and AT&T acquiring the largest two blocks of licenses. Verizon Wireless bid $429 million for spectrum covering the metropolitan New York City region, including Fairfield County, while AT&T spent $35 million for spectrum covering Fairfield County.

Late last year, Verizon Wireless indicated it will use its new airwaves to develop a new wireless network based on “Long Term Evolution” technology, which wireless equipment makers say will match broadband speeds of DSL and cable modems.

EchoStar Satellite L.L.C. also acquired a large block of 700 MHz spectrum in anticipation of launching mobile services to complement its Dish Network satellite television service.