One of the nations poorest service providers, wireless carriers, has been making progress, so the bulk of their customers are now satisfied with their services. The main reasons for the improvement appear to be that the carriers have enhanced their network performance, so there are fewer dropped calls and less static, items that previously made customers very grumpy.These findings come in Consumer Reports annual cell service survey of more than 50,000 users. Customers reported improvements from the start to the end of their calls: they had fewer problems with initial connectivity, were able to listen on lines free of static, and had fewer dropped calls. Consequently, 60% of users are completely or very satisfied with their service. As a result, cellular satisfaction has risen from near the bottom of all items rated by the consumers to the middle of the pack. What this means for a small and medium businesses is they can rely on these services more and worry less about possible problems.

Verizon was named the top supplier. The company received high marks from survey respondents in overall satisfaction and customer service, and its services are available in most of the country. Alltel, which Verizon is in the process of acquiring, and TMobile also scored well in the survey.

While there was a lot of positive news, there still are problems with cellular services. One of the biggest concerns identified was the high cost of cell service: it was listed as the top complaint by 14 percent of the respondents.

The cellular market has picked up support in recent years. While the industry demonstrated the problems often evident in nascent markets, such as inconsistent in service delivery, carriers seem to be making strides in addressing those issues, so small and medium business IT departments should have to handle fewer complaints about cell phone services.