PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.—Wireless operators are doing well at retaining customers, and only 7 percent of cellular customers say they plan to switch providers when their contracts are up, according to a survey by consumer and retail information company NPD Group.
NPD bases its mobile consumer information on more than 15,000 online consumer research surveys each month. Based on data from February 2006, about 67 percent of wireless customers are either “completely” or “very” satisfied with their wireless carriers. Most of the unhappy customers who do plan to swap carriers say they likely will go to Verizon Wireless.
“When number porting became available, many carriers worried it would cause a huge avalanche of consumer switching,” said Glen LeBlanc, NPD’s research director for mobile services. “But that didn’t happen, and according to consumers, it’s not going to happen. Proactive retention and promotional programs instituted by carriers that incorporate device upgrades appear to have helped lower churn across the industry.”
Last year, the four national wireless operators all reported churn rates of less than three percent, and Verizon Wireless again reported an industry-leading 1.3 percent churn rate for the year.
NPD also examined the area of data services. The firm found that T-Mobile USA Inc. leads the pack in text messaging, with the highest percentage of customers—about half—using SMS. NPD estimated that about 17 million wireless subscribers, most of them women, use picture messaging; and that almost 3 million users, mostly male, listen to music on their wireless handsets. About 18 percent of consumers have signed up for a wireless data plan, according to NPD, and Sprint Nextel Corp. has the largest share of customers with data plans at 25 percent.
