Cowen & Company publishes their “Wireless Survey” each quarter in front of earnings. The report is taken from cross-tabulating the data from two or more questions from the 1,047 survey respondents and provides “a level of context that is helpful in understanding industry dynamics with a unique level of customer detail that is not easily seen in company reported results.” Here is the second of their Top 10 observations:
#2) Churn improvements have stabilized. For the past two years Cowen has paid particular attention to postpaid respondents that plan on leaving their carrier a good indicator of churn as survey results have reflected what has been an industry wide slowdown in churn over this period. With that said, the number of postpaid respondents that plan on leaving their carrier was again largely flat at 9.4 vs. 8.6 percent last quarter and broadly in-line with levels we’ve now seen the past five quarters (Figure 49). With meaningful Y/Y churn improvements in 2016, the overall survey suggests that other than perhaps additional improvement Sprint/T-Mobile, improvements at the other carriers will be more difficult to come by.
January 20, 2017
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