Sprint Tops List of Most-Satisfied Wireless Customers

Which major wireless carrier has the most-satisfied customers? According to a new survey, Sprint narrowly beats out rivals like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, though only by one or two percentage points.

Apple, meanwhile, topped the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) as the most-popular cell phone maker, while Research in Motion continued its downward spiral.

On a scale of zero to 100, Sprint received a score of 71, which was down 1 percent from last year, but a bump from its abysmal score of 56 back in 2008.

"Not only to come from last place to first place in our industry, but to be the most improved U.S. company, period, over the last four years in the ACSI survey is a testament to the relentless focus the people of Sprint have placed on serving our customers," Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, said in a statement.

AT&T and T-Mobile recovered slightly from the public scorn that followed their failed merger attempt. AT&T jumped 5 percent from last year to tie T-Mobile at 69. Verizon dropped 3 percent to settle in the middle at 70.

Smaller carriers like Tracfone and U.S. Cellular maintained strong leads at 76, the study found.

Among phone makers, meanwhile, Apple was king with an all-time high score of 83, the first time a manufacturer has broken the 80 mark. "Apple's iPhone is a game changer when it comes to customer satisfaction," ACSI concluded.

Nokia, LG, and HTC tied at 75 while Motorola was down 5 percent at 73.

"This may be unwelcome news for Google as it hopes to make the most of its Motorola acquisition and widen the user base for its Android operating system," ACSI said.

Oddly, the in the world, Samsung, dropped 4 percent to 71.

At the bottom of the totem pole, meanwhile, was RIM, which landed at 69. "Companies with weak customer satisfaction often have weak stock performance," said Claes Fornell, ACSI founder and report author. "RIM's sales are slumping amid a bevy of problems, from hardware and software issues to server lapses that have caused email and messaging outages. Over the past year, share price for RIM has virtually collapsed."

The results come amidst a report from Kantar WorldPanel that said RIM's market share dropped from 9 to 3 percent in the last year. The company is hoping to bounce back with BlackBerry 10; for more, see PCMag's .

The ACSI study, meanwhile, also touched on wired connections, TV, and software. Verizon's FiOS topped customer satisfaction among subscription TV services with a score of 74, though overall, "subscription television service continues to underwhelm consumers," ACSI said. Adobe and Symantec, meanwhile, topped the software category at 77, while Microsoft dropped 4 percent to 75.

In a about online customer satisfication, Apple landed at 85, a five-point improvement from 2011, and enough to land it among the top-performing online retailers behind Amazon.