https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/verizons-rising-churn-problem
Verizon’s low churn rates were once the envy of the industry, but those days are gone.
“Verizon’s once industry-best churn rate has been steadily rising for nearly three straight years,” wrote MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett in a report for investors Tuesday. “Six months ago, they called this a ‘churn bubble’ that will pass. It hasn’t… Verizon’s churn problem is shocking.”
Through a combination of weakening value proposition – Verizon is no longer convincing customers that its network is the industry’s best – and its “understandable reticence” about subsidizing free handsets for retention means Verizon is struggling to keep its customers, Moffett wrote. Meanwhile, AT&T consistently uses handset subsidies and T-Mobile recently did so with its new Go5G plans, he noted.
Churn measures the rate at which customers are leaving a carrier and go to another one. Verizon reported Q1 2023 retail postpaid phone churn of 0.90% compared to the Q1 2022 churn rate of 0.83%.