Telecom Operators Could Potentially Lose a Significant Number of Customers in 2015

By Joe Rizzo
TMCnet Contributing Writer

Ovum’s (News - Alert) Telecoms Customer Insights survey program is designed to provide a robust and cost-effective set of tools for telecom decision makers to discover, understand, and act on changing customer attitudes across both consumer and enterprise markets. Change is inevitable and being able to understand the effects of those changes is crucial.

Rapid change in customer behavior is here to stay and the way that Ovum sees it, the pace of change in converging communications, media and technology markets remains relentless. Users, both as consumers and employees, are constantly making decisions on an enormous array of new technologies and services. As communications technology improves and deployments of faster more reliable networks increases, users expect more from their providers.

Excerpts from Ovum’s latest, 2014 Telecoms Customer Insights survey reveal that telecommunications operators can expect to lose as much as half of their customers within the next 12 month period. It appears as if about 25 percent of consumers are already set to switch providers in the coming year. The likeliest of groups to seek better service are iPhone (News - Alert) users, who will need a provider that will allow them to take advantage of the iPhone’s features.

The survey looked at a lot of information as it was conducted by interviewing 15,000 consumers and 2,700 enterprises across a range of 15 global markets. Angel Dobardziev, who is Ovum’s consumer services director, believes that the research highlights the significant differences in users’ churn patterns across geographies when he said, “The survey finds that almost twice as many customers of Airtel India or LG U+ in Korea plan to churn more than the global average of 23 percent. In contrast customers of Vodafone Germany or NTT DoCoMo (News - Alert) in Japan are much more loyal, with only about one in ten indicating they plan to switch operators.”

The group that will probably affect this the most is iPhone users. They are more likely to look for a provider that can assure them faster network speeds and more reliable quality. In the report, Dobardziev said, “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 six out of ten consumers rating it as essential. By comparison, an old favorite such as watching TV was rated by only three out 10 consumers as essential, scoring as less important than reading the news (50 percent of consumers), reading a book (45 percent) and listening to music (42 percent).”

Indications from the survey are that the quality of the mobile broadband experience is the leading driver for mobile operator churn, with 37 percent of consumers across around the world saying they either have left or plan to move to another provider because of slow connection speeds. Dobardziev feels that operators need to deepen their understanding of consumers’ tendency to find a provider that will offer them what they need, if not, they will switch.

Edited by Alisen Downey