Analysts have been saying that T-Mobile would have a pretty big Q1 when it reports their numbers in a few weeks. And now, the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners are adding onto that. In fact, their numbers are even more interesting, as they are stating that of the new phone activations T-Mobile had in the three month period ending on March 31st, 42% of them came from their rivals. Contrast that with only 18% of customers actually leaving. That’s a pretty good churn rate right there.
Sprint also had a good showing for attracting customers from their rivals, bringing in about 30%. However, 27 of their customers who were at risk of leaving, actually did switch carriers. That’s not a good thing for Sprint. It almost erases the number of customers they brought in. Additionally, less than 0.5% of Sprint’s new activations in Q1, came from those buying their first phone. A bit interesting fact there from the CIRP.
CIRP also notes that the duopoly, Verizon and AT&T, remained focused on luring and retaining their lucrative consumers in the quarter. And this is to help bring up their bottom lines. Sprint is still struggling, but remember they did post a pretty decent quarter to close out 2015, so anything is possible.
CIRP Partner and co-founder, Josh Lowitz stated that “T-Mobile showed it can attract significant numbers of new customers, while retaining its current ones.” In a wireless industry that is as competitive as it is today, this is more important than ever. Especially if you are looking to grow. Lowitz continued by stating that “Sprint also gained a significant percentage of customers relative to its base, but lost almost as many.”
None of the wireless carriers have yet to officially report their Q1 earnings. But Verizon will be doing theirs this Thursday. Verizon typically puts out their numbers early in the morning, so when we wake up on Thursday we should know how well Verizon did. Dates have not yet been announced for T-Mobile, Sprint or AT&T just yet. But we’ll likely see them in the next few weeks. And then we won’t have to rely on analysts thoughts any longer.