In the wake of purple ribbons, zombies and looking up words in the dictionary, we thought we might want to try something resembling journalism. To that end, we’ve started the Time to Human project.

Each week, we pick an industry and call up their customer service lines around noon. We see how long it takes to get a person and post a graph of the results. We round up the numbers at the week’s end do another industry the next week. When we’re done, we will compare the results across industries.

This week we’re calling mobile phone companies. Today is a good day to be a Nextel customer.

To provide consistency across companies and industries, we use the numbers and hacks provided in the GetHuman database, which purports to contain the swiftest ways to reach a customer service human by phone.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.