Verizon is still tops in a new survey of U.S. wireless subscribers, but it’s now forced to share its crown after seeing a slight dip in its ratings from last year. And an also-ran in the customer-satisfaction race, Sprint, has managed to stage an impressive comeback.

The latest figures from the American Customer Satisfaction Index are in, and as expected, Verizon Wireless leads the charge, with an ACSI rating of 73 out of 100 — not bad, but a drop of 1.4 percentage points from last year. Why the dip? Unfortunately, the ACSI researchers don’t say, and I’m also at a bit of a loss, given some of Verizon’s impressive handsets in the past few months (particularly the just-released HTC Incredible). Any insight, Verizon subscribers?

Verizon’s slip left an opening for T-Mobile, which saw its ACSI rating climb about 3 points to 73, good enough to tie Verizon for the lead. T-Mobile has been a favorite in the ACSI ratings over the past few years, consistently placing in the top two (well, out of only four, but still) thanks to its solid customer service. All those new Android phones in T-Mobile’s lineup probably don’t hurt, either.

Next in line: Sprint, which just a couple of year ago was in the cellar with a dismal ACSI rating of 56 out of 100. As ACSI notes, Sprint went through a rocky period after its turbulent merger with Nextel in 2004; subscribers bailed in droves during a spate of wretched customer service. (Just a couple of years back, in fact, I regularly had to wait half an hour or so to get a Sprint customer service rep on the line. That was fun.)

But Sprint has apparently recovered since the merger, the ACSI report says. Its cheap bundles of unlimited voice, data and text messaging helped it surge an eye-popping 11.1 points since 2009, landing the still-struggling carrier with an ACSI rating of 70.

That leaves AT&T in the rear among major U.S. carriers. The news isn’t all bad: With a rating of 69, AT&T managed a 3-point improvement over last year. The exclusive iPhone carrier “seems to have made strides to resolve the strains on its network caused by the rapid growth of iPhone usage,” ACSI researchers say.

There’s no telling how AT&T’s data network will hold up if the company opens the floodgates to iPhone Internet tethering. But at least the avalanche of complaints about AT&T’s spotty network performance seems to have eased off a bit over the past several months, as the carrier races to shore up its national 3G network infrastructure. (Not that the reception in my AT&T-free living room has improved all that much. Oh well.)

In a final interesting tidbit, the ACSI survey found that overall wireless customer satisfaction reached an all-time high: 72 out of 100, up 4.3 points from last year.

How do the latest results from the ACSI survey stack up with your experience? Happy with your carrier these days? How about with wireless service in general?

Via Yahoo