As the speculation continues about how the Verizon iPhone 4 will impact AT&T, one firm is attempting to make the speculation a little more scientific. ChangeWave started investigating a possible migration several says before the Verizon iPhone was officially launched.
ChangeWave asked survey respondents how likely they are to change their wireless service provider in the next 90 days. Ten percent said they plan to switch providers in that period. Noteworthy is the fact that only four percent of Verizon Wireless customers said they plan to switch, compared to 15 percent of AT&T customers. Ten percent of Sprint Nextel customers and 15 percent of T-Mobile customers plan to switch carriers in the next 90 days.
What are AT&T customers unhappy about? The ChangeWave surveys offers the top three reasons consumers said they are likely to switch. Forty-two percent cited poor reception and coverage as the reason. Twenty-seven percent pointed to dropped calls, and 17 percent said they would switch from AT&T because of costs.
Doomsday for AT&T?
“Secondly, the weakening loyalty of AT&T wireless customers is directly attributable to the upcoming release of a Verizon iPhone,” said Paul Carton, vice president of research at ChangeWave. “A total of 16 percent of AT&T subscribers say they’ll switch to Verizon once it begins offering the iPhone. Another 23 percent say they don’t know if they’ll switch.”
Importantly, he said, current Apple iPhone owners are the most likely group to switch, with more than one in four, or 26 percent, saying they’ll leave AT&T for Verizon. Carton also noted that among all AT&T subscribers planning to switch, two in five, or 41 percent, say they’ll do it within the first three months of the Verizon iPhone’s release — and another 31 percent within the first year.
“Despite the seemingly inevitable hemorrhaging of AT&T’s subscriber base, there was one bright…