Computerworld — Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and Alltel tied for the highest ranking in wireless customer care awarded today by J.D. Power and Associates. But AT&T and Sprint Nextel finished no better than average, even as the overall industry rating improved.

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J.D. Power based its ranking on feedback from more than 12,000 wireless customers who had contacted their carrier's customer care department in the past year.

Each of the three carriers won an overall score of 747 out of 1,000 points, which were awarded based on how well wireless carriers service their customers through telephone calls, during visits to a retail wireless store or over the Web. The study looked at overall customer satisfaction as well as how efficient the carriers were at solving problems and how long customers were put on hold.

The only other two carriers evaluated by J.D. Power were AT&T and Sprint Nextel. No total score for either company was released, but Sprint Nextel finished with an overall satisfaction rating of two out of five while AT&T got three out of five. The top three got five out of five for an overall rating.

Customer care has been a persistent concern at Sprint for the past two years, but Sprint executives repeatedly say it is improving. AT&T, meanwhile, has come under criticism from iPhone customers because of certain features that were unavailable or networks that weren't performing well for a period in 2008. However it's unknown how directly those problems affected the company's overall customer care rating.

Customer care has been a major concern to the entire industry as well. J.D. Power reported in a statement today that overall customer care for the carriers has improved considerably, up to 735 out of 1,000, up 12 points from the first wave of the study released in February.

J.D. Power said shorter wait times and getting a problem resolved on the first contact have helped improve customer satisfaction. More than 75% of calls to customer service are resolved on the first contact, up from 66% just six months ago. The average time on hold is now 5.55 minutes, up from 6.58 in February.

Verizon acquired Alltel in January, and Verizon today said in a statement that the acquisition has helped improve customer care. Customer care employees and systems at Alltel have now been fully integrated into Verizon, officials said.

T-Mobile's strength was its ability to transfer customers from an automated telephone response system to a live service representative, while Verizon performed best at identifying customer problems quickly and resolving them smoothly with service representatives.

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