The annual wireless customer satisfaction survey conducted by Consumer Reports has revealed that even the consumers are all praise for the Apple iPhone as the best smartphone, they are not so happy with the service of AT&T – the iPhone’s exclusive carrier in the US.

The survey conducted in 26 cities polled 50,000 readers, and found that, in 19 cities, AT&T got the lowest ranking in terms of customer satisfaction. Though the carrier received an ‘above average’ ranking for Web access and texting, it ranked poorly in almost all the other categories surveyed - with the lowest of its ratings being in the voice connectivity and customer support categories.

While merely 54 percent of the respondents said that they were ‘very’ or ‘completely’ satisfied with their mobile phone service; nearly two-thirds of them, that is, nearly 33,000, said that they had ‘at least one major complaint’ against AT&T.

As per the observation by All Things Digital blog, the Consumer Reports’ statistics reveal that AT&T is clearly “middling at best in customer satisfaction.”

The AT&T rival Verizon Wireless managed a high ranking in almost all categories surveyed, though there were complaints about the high costs of the carrier’s service.

Meanwhile, in pitching for its new Motorola Droid smartphone in a series of shrewdly-designed TV advertisements, Verizon has been openly targeting AT&T’s 3G coverage shortcomings!