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AT&T could lose 26% of iPhone customers, study suggests

by Steven Sande Feb 10th 2011 at 1:00PM

With Verizon picking up the iPhone 4 in the US, market research firm ChangeWave decided to see just how much of an impact the new carrier would have on AT&T. The result of a survey of over 4,000 U.S. consumers shows that a whopping 26 percent of respondents said that they would drop AT&T for Verizon.

42 percent of the folks who say they're going to move to VZW say that they're tired of the poor reception they get on the AT&T network, while 27 percent stated that dropped calls were the reason.

Paul Carton, director of research at ChangeWave, noted that AT&T's current "churn rate" -- the number of subscribers who say they are planning to change carriers in the next 90 days -- is at an all-time high of around 15 percent at this point. Only last June, that rate was at about 9 percent. Verizon's churn rate is only about 4 percent by comparison.

ChangeWave did find a sliver lining to AT&T's cloudy future, as the carrier has improved the rate at which it drops calls. Only 4.7 percent of AT&T subscribers reported a dropped call in the last 90 days, down from 6 percent back in September of 2010.

TUAW would like to perform its own market research with our awesome readers, so we'd like to know if current AT&T iPhone customers are planning on jumping ship for Verizon Wireless. Take our reader poll and enjoy the results.

Update: An AT&T spokesperson noted that both Piper Jaffray and Hudson Square published information today showing that only 6 - 8 percent of people in line today were previously with AT&T; much less than one would expect from the ChangeWave figures. Forbes ran a post that also talked about the light turnout for the Verizon iPhone. The AT&T spokesperson also noted that they're seeing record low churn -- about 1.15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, much less than ChangeWave's numbers show.

AT&T iPhone Owners: Are you moving to Verizon Wireless?
I already have!549 (8.1%)
I'm planning on switching in the next 90 days374 (5.5%)
I'm planning on switching in the next six months622 (9.1%)
I'm planning on switching in the next year825 (12.1%)
I don't have problems with AT&T and I'm sticking with them4441 (65.2%)



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With Verizon picking up the iPhone 4 in the US, market research firm ChangeWave decided to see just how much of an impact the new carrier...
 

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Gregory Pierce

This is a really bad poll. The question you should be asking is WHAT would make you move to Verizon. While I'm not prepped to move today and don't for the next year, its only because I'd wait for LTE.

If you really want to discover the TRUE churn rate you can't just ask whether or not people will move, but what would cause them to move. Could be price, could be plans, could be network, etc. In any rate, I wouldn't do jack until the iPhone 5 shows up. I still think Verizon made a mistake by launching off-cycle.

February 11 2011 at 5:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sonnie

Remember this day 2/10/2011 is when the droid died lol

February 10 2011 at 4:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rNOT

Unfortunately, the survey doesn't have an option for me. I do have problems with AT&T, but going to Verizon is not an option, since I've had multiple bad experiences with their customer service (billing dispute), as well as it's limitations on speed and taking a call and accessing data at the same time (this is important to one of my job functions). Fortunately, I do don't have access issues where I primarily use my phone, but when I do have access issues, they're horrible. I'm banking a lot of people jump ship to hopefully free up some bandwidth. That being said, all the options are still second class.

February 10 2011 at 4:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ozbone

You've left out another option on your voting:
I'm not necessarily happy with AT&T but sticking with 'em anyway.

And that's me; not prepared to give up international use, not prepared to put up with talk or download, etal. Definitely not crazy about AT&T either.

February 10 2011 at 3:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Vancity

I like to click buttons and participate in online research...show me the damn statistics.



I couldn't wait so I voted...error bars anyone?

February 10 2011 at 2:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JayBee

Your poll needs an additional question: I deal with the poor service and dropped calls of AT&T because EVERYONE in my area is on AT&T so 90% of my calls are free. Also, AT&T's reporting of the number of people who report dropped calls is a silly measure -- I have dropped calls everyday and seldom report them as I am more concerned with calling the customer back and completing the call than being one of AT&T's statistics. I do not have time to do their job as well as mine.

February 10 2011 at 2:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tskunk

I live in SF and have to say AT&T's coverage is piss poor. The girl I live with is on Verizon, and in our apt, I have 1 bar while she has 4. She can't remember the last time she had a call drop while virtually every call in my call log has numbers 2-9 next to them to indicate callbacks after AT&T failures. Oh yeah, and I spent the whole day yesterday on the EDGE network. THANK YOU AT&T. WHY AM I PAYING FOR 3G COVERAGE?

February 10 2011 at 2:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason

While I've gotten a couple dropped calls over the last two years after switching to AT&T for the iPhone, coverage with AT&T is actually better than Verizon where some of my family lives. That, and the extra it would cost per month to switch to Verizon just doesn't make it worth it for me.

February 10 2011 at 2:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BigPixel

That's an interesting study. If it turns out to be right, things can only get better for those of us who have no plan to leave AT&T. Better reliability maybe? Enticements to stay - maybe free tethering or other goodies?
Either way I'm with the 65% of TUAW responders in the "no problem" category right now.

February 10 2011 at 2:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
djarch

Should also add one for people that just want to see the results, so us already-Verizon subscribers don't have to skew your results to see them.

February 10 2011 at 1:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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