Can you hear me now? No…

We upgrade our smartphones regularly, dishing out massive amounts of money for faster speeds or better service. But are we getting that speed, reliability and security that we need? A recent study, done by the Pew Research Center, indicates this is not the case.

Increasingly, people are cancelling land lines and relying on their mobile devices to make calls. 72% of cell owners are experiencing dropped calls occasionally, and 32% are encountering this problem a few times a week, making for a very problematic calling experience.

These frustrations carry over to browsing speeds, as well. Smartphone data-systems advertised as 3G or 4G “lightning speeds” sound fast, but turn out to be extremely deceiving. According to the study, over 75% of smartphone Internet users say they experience slow download speeds that prevent web applications from loading as quickly as they would like.

To top it off, 69% of texters report weekly unwanted intrusions on their smartphones. Right when you think you’ve got e-mail spam under control, it hits your mobile device.

According to Jan Lauren Boyles of Pew Internet:

“‘The big change that mobile connectivity has brought to users is the instant availability of people and data,’ noted Jan Lauren Boyles, a Pew Internet Project researcher who authored this report. ‘As mobile owners become fond of just-in-time access to others and as their expectations about getting real-time information rise, they depend on the cell phone’s technical reliability. Any problems that snag, stall, or stop users from connecting to the material and people they seek is at least a hassle to them and sometimes is even more disturbing than that in this networked world.’”

Users expect more, rightly so, because technology has so rapidly advanced to a real-time connection environment. It is time for wireless carriers to test, identify glitches and fine tune these smartphone devices for an improved user experience.

What is your biggest smartphone headache? Let us know in the comments section.