November 15th, 2022, Rishad Dsouza
One in six consumers globally switched their cell phone network providers over the last 12 months, according to data from YouGov Telco Profiles. This proportion varies significantly across markets.
For instance, only around a tenth of all Britons (10%), Germans (11%) and Americans (12%) changed their providers, but that share is nearly three times as high among Indians (31%).
Saudi Arabia (27%), Indonesia (23%) and Thailand (23%) also had a large proportion of carrier switchers. Outside of Asia, Brazil (17%), Australia (17%) and Spain (17%) experienced a high churn.
But what are the factors that drive consumers to switch providers. For just under a fifth of those who switched carriers over the last 12 months, their goal was to reduce mobile spend (17%). A similar proportion of them were attracted by a cheaper deal (16%) and an identical share wanted more for the money (16%).
About one in seven consumers (15%) wanted a change in tariff or plan type (15%), while value for money (13%) was a motivator too. But not all switchers are looking to cut costs – one in ten of them were lured by a more comprehensive package at higher costs. Getting better network coverage (9%), dissatisfaction with customer service (8%), faster data speeds (7%) and taking advantage of 5G services (7%) also were key factors within this group.
When looking at this data by age group, we see no significant difference in driving factors among members of the working age in majority of the factors., while those aged 55+ under-index on almost factors. This could perhaps be an outcome of this group relying more on recommendations or decisions from others when switching their carriers.
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