JD Power gave a rare three-way tie for the top spot in customer support among US cellular carriers this week. Alltel, T-Mobile USA and Verizon all earned the top spot with each receiving a 747-point score out of 1,000 and a full five-star rating. Each scored well in different areas. Alltel fared best with retail support, while T-Mobile was best in getting customers to live phone help and Verizon was the most efficient at solving problems.

The gap was not necessarily wide between these and other carriers, but AT&T sat slightly below average, at 730 points and three stars. Despite significant attempts to improve its customer help in recent months, Sprint placed last with 704 points and similar stars.

Researchers noted that the overall field nonetheless moved up as a whole, as the average moved up 12 points compared to February while more issues (76 percent) were solved on the first pass and customers spent roughly a minute less waiting on the phone at 5 minutes 55 seconds.