Almost half of Australians have switched to another mobile service provider during the last three years, with nearly 40 per cent planning to drop their current provider in the next year, according to Telsyte’s Australian Mobile Services Market Study 2014-17.
Bill shock and customer dissatisfaction are the main reasons why there is high mobile provider churn, with 15 per cent of Australians experiencing this in the last 12 months.
“Telsyte findings show that people who have experienced bill shock are two and a half times more likely to change providers,” said the analyst firm.
The study also found younger age groups and iPhone users experienced bill shock more so than others in 2013. This was due to excessive usage of local data, rather than international roaming charges.
The competition Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) bring to the market also spurred on people to switch mobile providers, according to Telsyte.
Telsyte’s customer rating survey found that Amaysim and Telstra came out on top for choice of service providers for network reliability, coverage, price, customer service, etc.
However, the quality of service (as opposed to the price) is still a key differentiator in the market, as telcos strive to offer more customers high-speed 4G services.
“High-speed 4G/LTE continues to be a key differentiator for the carrier brands, with MVNOs having less access to wholesale 4G than older 3G/HSPA+ services.
“Telsyte expects 4G services to make up nearly 70 per cent of all mobile services by 2017.”
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