Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Consumer Switching Costs in the U.S. Marketplace for Wireless
Source: AARP Policy & Research

Consumer switching costs are the actual or perceived costs that customers associate with the process of changing from one wireless telephone service provider to another. Significant evidence suggests that the national wireless carriers strategically pursue and manage a full range of switching cost opportunities. This issue deserves attention from policymakers because markets often become less competitive and consumers generally pay higher prices when firms impose or exploit switching costs. However, in this AARP Public Policy Institute Issue Paper, Christopher A. Baker finds that the use of switching costs as a customer retention tool is a practice that occurs virtually unchecked by the federal agency responsible for ensuring that consumers can switch freely between wireless carriers.

+ In Brief (PDF; 451 KB)
+ Full Report (PDF; 138 KB)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 5:11 pm and is filed under Consumer issues, Telecommunications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.