• Los Angeles Times, Monday, September 10, 2007 10:15 AM

Cell phone companies are big on bragging, with Sprint claiming it has "the fastest and largest national mobile broadband network," and Verizon touting its network as "America's most reliable." And AT&T's big boast was about how it had the "fewest dropped calls" until a recent change.

While the company says the reason for the change to "more bars in more places" is because "this is what our customers tell us over and over again is important to them," there could be some legal reasons behind it as well. Ira Spiro, an attorney representing an AT&T customer in a federal lawsuit against the company, calls their explanation "folderol." His client claims that AT&T knew the "dropped-calls" ads were "inaccurate and deceptive," and says he was duped into renewing a contract by them.

"It's an industry that does a lot of bragging but also does a lot of disappointing," says Greg Daugherty, executive editor of Consumer Reports, which in a recent survey found that cell phone users ranked their cellular providers 66 on a scale of 100 when it comes to customer satisfaction. "They love to promise the world," adds Edgar Dworsky, editor of mouseprint.org, which claims to expose the strings in advertising fine print. But, he notes, most ads are hard to disprove--as it is impossible to judge just what lines like "most reliable wireless network" really mean.

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