Opensignal has analyzed mobile subscriber churn in Indonesia and found that our users who changed their mobile operator on average had a worse mobile experience before they switched compared to the typical experience on their original network. Moreover, all our users that we have seen switching mobile operators had a better experience on their new mobile network. Our users who left 3, Indosat, Smartfren and XL on average spent less time without a mobile signal on their new network. However, our users who left Telkomsel on average did not see any significant difference to their 3G/4G signal availability, but rather saw 4G Availability increase on their new network.
Opensignal analyzed the mobile experience of our Leavers during the second half of the year 2020. We looked at those users’ mobile experience during the 30 days before they made the change, and compared that against the average experience on their network during the full period.
We found that Leavers on average had a worse mobile experience before they switched than the typical experience observed by our users on their original network provider. Leavers across all five national MNOs on average spent more than twice the amount of time without a mobile signal compared to the average scores on their networks; they also spent less time connected to either a 3G or 4G mobile connection — 3G/4G Availability — and they experienced lower 4G Availability. Our data therefore suggests that users experiencing mobile network pain points are more likely to change their mobile service provider.
We then looked at the mobile experience of Leavers on their new mobile network provider, during the first 30 days following their change, and compared that against their experience in the previous 30 days, when they were still on their original mobile network.
Opensignal data shows Leavers from all operators except for Telkomsel spent less time without a mobile signal on their new mobile network compared to their previous one. 3, Indosat and XL’s Leavers experienced higher 3G/4G Availability on their new network, while Telkomsel and XL’s Leavers also had better 4G Availability on their new mobile network. Interestingly, Smartfren was the only Indonesian mobile operator whose Leavers experienced a worse 4G Availability on their new mobile network, but that was to be expected. In fact, because Smartfren is a 4G-only operator, it has been historically leading in our 4G Availability metric, which meant that, in this analysis, users leaving Smartfren for other operators on average saw their time connected to 4G decrease.
As Kominfo has been calling for nationwide 4G deployments to improve Indonesian smartphone users’ mobile experience, our analysis shows that 4G experience plays a significant role in terms of customer satisfaction and churn behaviour.
Our data shows that Indonesia’s Leavers had a worse mobile experience before they switched to another network, compared to the typical experience on their original network. Also, Leavers from all operators got a better experience on their new mobile network after they changed. This shows that mobile experience matters to subscribers and that it is an extremely important driver of churn in Indonesia.
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