Mixed news for AT&T in Consumer Reports wireless survey

There's good news and bad news for AT&T in Consumer Reports' latest annual cellphone service ratings. First the bad: the carrier finished last among the four major U.S. cellphone providers, behind Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile.

But AT&T also had a silver lining. The company's 4G (fourth generation) wireless network performed the best, at least judging by the fact that it received fewer complaints than any of its rivals. That's notable considering more people surveyed use AT&T's 4G network with their smartphones. As the leader, Verizon received favorable scores for voice and data service quality and for its support staffers' knowledge and ability to solve problems. Consumer Reports says Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T received mostly low to middle ratings on such attributes.