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By Lynn Walford 05/15/2012

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) now rates the cell phone companies and carriers and people are less satisfied with every service and product except for the iconic iPhone.

Customer satisfaction with the cell phone industy slipped 1.3% to 74, while wireless service dropped 1.4% to 70.

Top Satisfied Cell Phone/Smartphone Companies:

83 - Apple (iPhone).
75 - Nokia, LG and HTC.
73 -Motorola.
71 - Samsung.
69 - BlackBerry/RIM.

Customer satisfaction does not come close to how reviewers rate about the products. The the latest Samsung release the Samsung Galaxy S III is getting excellent reviews even before its release. The top Verizon Wireless smartphone, currently is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

On the service side, the aggregation of smaller carriers (such as TracFone and U.S. Cellular) maintains a strong lead at 76, despite a small downturn (-1%). All companies show modest ACSI declines except for AT&T Mobility.

Carrier Ratings

76 - TracFone U.S. Cellular
71 - Sprint.
70 - Verizon Wireless.
69 - T-Mobile and AT&T.

Last year, customer satisfaction for AT&T and T-Mobile tumbled amid merger talks. This year, AT&T recoups its loss (+5%), but only to tie T-Mobile (-1%) at 69. On the other hand, AT&T is now close to rival Verizon (-3% to 70), whose score has dwindled over three years. At 71, Sprint Nextel nominally grabs first place among the big carriers and holds nearly steady (-1%) following three years of swift ACSI progress (up from 56 in 2008).