Telecoms operators can be sure to keep only about half of their existing customer base over the next 12 months, according to Ovum’s recently published major global survey, 2014 Telecoms Customer Insights. About a quarter of all users globally say they will definitely change providers, with another quarter indicating they may do so.
The survey shows that the quality of the mobile broadband experience is the leading driver for mobile operator churn, with 37% of consumers globally saying that they either have left or plan to move to another provider because of slow connection speeds. For operators, these findings highlight the importance of investing in broadband.
The survey, which included over 15,000 consumers and 2,700 enterprises in 15 major global markets, also underlines the global importance of being online.
“Being online is by far the most important thing in consumers’ digital media lives. When we asked consumers to rate a range of activities on a scale from “essential” to “unimportant”, browsing the Web came top, with nearly 6 out of 10 consumers rating it as essential. By comparison, an old favourite such as watching TV was rated by only 3 out 10 consumers as essential, scoring as less important than reading the news (50% of consumers), reading a book (45%) and listening to music (42%),” says Angel Dobardziev, practice leader at Ovum.
The survey also found that iPhone users are much more likely to churn than those with another phone, and mostly in order to find a provider with faster mobile network speeds – again underlining how crucial the quality of broadband experience is to consumers.
