The MSW TBSM tracking service measures Brand Preference as one component of the survey. Wireless Phone Service category, changes in Brand Preference levels between March 2023 and March 2024 were computed for individual brands.  Our Chart of the Week displays these results for the three top players in the U.S. Wireless Phone Service market: AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.

In addition to Brand Preference data, this week’s chart includes the absolute number of subscribers gained or lost in Q1 of 2024 for each of the top competitors as reported by each company.

• Brand Preference was read among Wireless Phone Service Users in both March of 2023 (N=492) and March of 2024 (N=494).
• Based on this sample of category users, Brand Preference surged higher for T-Mobile (+4.0%), was moderately higher for AT&T (+1.6%) and declined slightly for Verizon (-0.4%).
• These changes in Brand Preference levels are consistent with recent subscriber growth (or loss) levels.
• Bloomberg has reported that “In recent years, Verizon has lost ground in subscriber growth to wireless rivals”.
• This trend continued in Q1 of 2024, as it has been reported that T-Mobile added over half a million subscribers; AT&T added nearly 350 thousand subscribers; and Verizon lost close to 70 thousand subscribers.
• One potential reason for the strengthening of Brand Preference for T-Mobile comes from the fact that the brand draws substantially more of its preference (compared to AT&T and Verizon) from those who cite “has a low monthly bill” as the most important category characteristic. This characteristic is not only cited most often among category users in the TBSM survey as being most important, but also gained the most support over the past year versus all other category characteristics included in the survey.