5 Phone Carriers To Avoid, According To Consumers

There are many things to consider when choosing a new phone carrier. Reception, accessability, customer service, and getting a good value are just a few examples. While there are numerous experts with extensive knowledge of cell phone providers out there, it's always good to see what actual customers think about all of these different phone carriers, as they use them regularly in their day-to-day lives.

Luckily, there are many resources out there where you can find the opinions of consumers on this topic. Companies like Consumer Reports, J.D. Power, and the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) specialize in surveying thousands of real customers across the country about their overall experiences with these phone carriers. They also dig into specific categories, such as reception and value for price, to get a greater sense of these experiences. By using all of these surveys, we have chosen five different phone carriers that generally receive poor scores from consumers from across all of these platforms. These include both major network providers and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which are wireless providers that don't own their own cell tower infrastructure and build their networks off that of those major networks. Based on the opinions of customers, the size and power of your network doesn't have much bearing on their regular experiences.

Boost Mobile has been one of the big names in MVNOs for the past 25 years. It had been using its own 5G network for service that had been developed by its parent company DISH Network, alongside the T-Mobile network, but in 2025, EchoStar — which acquired DISH in 2023 — made a $23 billion deal to sell its spectrum licenses to AT&T. Although AT&T is now the primary service provider, Boost customers are still able to connect to the T-Mobile network if they want.

According to both J.D. Power and the ACSI, Boost Mobile leaves a lot to be desired from customers. In its most recent study, those surveyed by J.D. Power placed Boost dead last among MVNOs with postpaid plans. Based on 1,000-point scale, the carrier earned 611 points. For comparison, the most-liked carrier in this segment, Consumer Wireless, earned 720 points. The overall average was still 30 points higher than Boost's score. Among prepaid customers, it doesn't fare much better, ranking as third-worst in satisfaction with 626 points. Mint Mobile topped this segment with 711 points.

Similarly, Boost ranks the lowest among full-service MVNOs with the ACSI. It uses a scale out of 100, and Boost earned a score of 74. The gap between it and what tied for best in this category, Spectrum Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile, is only four points, but the range among scores among all carriers in the ACSI's survey is quite narrow. Every point matters. Those surveyed by Consumer Reports are a bit more kind to Boost Mobile, but it still doesn't crack the top ten of providers.

Back in 2017, Comcast announced the creation of the wireless provider Xfinity Mobile. The company had already been using that name for its internet provider, so it was only natural to expand their service to cell phones as well. Xfinity Mobile is another MVNO, and it uses Verizon's network for its service, though the service also works in conjunction with Xfinity's own 20 million Wi-Fi hotspots around the country. Well, just as the Xfinity internet service gets poor reviews from customers, the same is true for Xfinity Mobile, which finds its head below water across the board.

Among all phone carriers, Xfinity Mobile ranked as the fourth worst by Consumer Reports. Customers found both its customer service and value for price to be subpar, and its data and reception scores were only average. Xfinity ranked as the second worst postpaid MVNO of all by J.D. Power. On its 1,000 point satisfaction scale, it received 614 points, just three above last place finisher Boost Mobile and over 100 points fewer than Consumer Cellular in the top spot. The brand's prepaid service, NOW Mobile, wasn't featured in J.D. Power's study.

Xfinity Mobile earned a score of 76 out of 100 from the ACSI. That's only two points behind the top spot, but it's still one point behind the overall average score for full-service MVNOs on the whole. 76 is one point more than it scored in 2025, but considering every other mobile provider also went up or stayed steady, that's not much of an accomplishment. Just about everywhere you look, people are quite dissatisfied with the service Xfinity provides.

Verizon may be a major network provider, but it also operates a number of MVNOs as well, including Straight Talk and TracFone, to offer more affordable options for consumers. While those providers have fairly mixed opinions from customers, one of these value brands has pretty all around poor consumer ratings, and that's Total Wireless. This is a prepaid provider that, naturally, uses Verizon's own network for its 4G and 5G service.

Those surveyed by Consumer Reports are the most positive about their Total Wireless experience, but even that only amounts to it being the sixth worst rated of all 26 providers scored. Its scores for value, reception, and data were okay, which may be enough for people to think Total Wireless is worth it, but its customer service score is in the gutter.

Things don't get any better for the provider in the J.D. Power study. Among all the prepaid MVNOs featured, Total Wireless came in dead last place, earning a score of just 604 points on the 1,000 point scale. Not only is that the lowest in its category, but that's the second-lowest score of any provider in the study. Mint Mobile, the highest-rated prepaid provider, beats it by over 100 points with a total of 711. Even fellow Verizon-owned prepaid carrier Visible earned 708 points.

Among value MVNOs, the ACSI had Total Wireless at the bottom of the list with a score of 74 out of 100, tied with Boost Mobile as the overall worst MVNO. Consumer Cellular was the highest value option at 84. Total Wireless apparently isn't the total package for consumers.

Just because major mobile network operators (MNOs) own all of their cellular infrastructure doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get a better overall experience with the provider than the smaller virtual network operators out there. Case in point: Verizon Wireless. It's the largest wireless provider in the United States with around 147 million subscribers, and its business is only continuing to grow. That being said, actual customer experience with Verizon is frequently seen to be mediocre at its best and quite bad at its worst.

Out of all 26 providers that Consumer Reports surveyed customers about, Verizon was rated the third worst. This includes major and minor companies alike, be they network or virtual network providers. Verizon even ranks below all the MVNOs that Verizon itself owns. Far and away the biggest issue customers had with Verizon was its value, getting the worst score possible. Everything else, from customer satisfaction to data, were fairly average, but users simply aren't happy with how much they're paying for this service.

In the study by J.D. Power, Verizon paled in comparison to fellow MNO T-Mobile for both prepaid and postpaid services. Verizon earned 615 points on a scale of 1,000 for prepaid and 606 points for postpaid. These are 22 and 30 points behind what T-Mobile scored in the same segments, respectively. The ACSI also has Verizon at the bottom of its MNO ratings, tying with AT&T, with a score of 76, a survey that again sees T-Mobile at the top. If someone is looking to switch to one of the three MNOs in America, no customer survey has Verizon highly rated in that category to convince them to select it.

The name AT&T, which is an abbreviation for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, has been a staple of American telecommunications since 1885. In the following 150 years, it has undergone mergers, divestments, ownership changes, and more, but that AT&T name has always been there. Now, it's one of the three major network operators in the United States, but despite its storied history, AT&T just so happens to be the worst rated MNO by customers across the board. It's even in the running for the least liked cell provider of all, regardless of size.

Among various customer surveys, AT&T fares worst in the one by J.D. Power. Based on its 1,000 point satisfaction scale, AT&T earned just 614 points for its prepaid service, the lowest score for a MNO in this category and putting it 23 points behind T-Mobile in first place. Its postpaid score is even worse at 596. That doesn't just put it at the bottom of this category. That's the lowest satisfaction score for any provider in any category, and it's the only score below 600 points.

Over at Consumer Reports, AT&T rates as the second-worst provider of them all. Customers couldn't be less satisfied with the value they're getting for the price, and customer service didn't rate too much higher than that either. Its date and reception could only manage average scores too. Only Optimum had a lower rating than AT&T, which isn't on this list due to lacking further consensus. There's no lacking for that with AT&T though. The ACSI has it tied with Verizon in the bottom spot for MNOs as well. There's truly very little love for AT&T from consumers.