More than 13% mobile users in Spain changed operators in 2018

According to a recent survey, over 13% of mobile users in Spain switched mobile operator in 2018, 18% more considered switching.

The National Commission on Markets and Competition (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia, “CNMC”), Spain’s market competition watchdog, recently polled 5,000 families and over 9,000 individuals to understand their loyalty towards their mobile operators. The survey found the churn rate reached 13.48% of all mobile users. In addition, 11.25% considered moving to a new operator but did not start the process, a further 6.57% did not only consider moving but had actually started the process of moving but did not complete the swap.

When it comes to the main reason for moving, tariff was by far the leading driver, cited by 62% of the individual respondents, the highest level since 2015. A quarter of users moved operators to get fixed and mobile packages, with 20% driven away by the dissatisfaction with the quality of service at their original operators. 14% said they were attracted to change by special promotions (see the chart at the bottom of the article).

On the other hand, the most cited reason for users to stay with an operator for long term is tariff discount or improved terms, chosen by 49% of all respondents. Until two years ago, the leading reason had been promotion of new handsets.