More than half of consumers across five of Europe’s biggest telecom markets are open to changing mobile providers, a sign that loyalty is becoming much harder for operators to take for granted.

New analysis from Circles, covering France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, finds that 53% of consumers are willing to switch mobile provider, with more than half of potential switchers expecting to act within 12 months. The Consumer Insights: Customer Stickiness & Loyalty in European Telecommunications report examines why customers leave, what still keeps them loyal and where traditional retention strategies are losing their grip.

The central message is simple: Europe does not have one telecom loyalty problem. It has several.

Loyalty looks different by market

Switching intention varies sharply by country, age and exposure to low-cost competition.

• Germany: Around 64% of adults under 35 are open to switching, while 75% of consumers over 55 intend to stay with their current provider.
• Italy: Two-year mobile switching intention rose from 18% in 2023 to 27% in 2024, the largest year-on-year increase among the five markets. Around three-quarters of intended destinations among switchers were low-cost operators.
• United Kingdom: 31% said they were likely to change operator within two years in 2024, six percentage points higher than a year earlier.
• Spain: Despite very high fixed-mobile convergence, roughly 55% of intended destinations among switchers were low-cost operators.
• France: 27% expected to switch within two years in 2024, four percentage points more than in 2023, while pressure from lower-cost propositions continues to build.

A retention offer for an older German subscriber is unlikely to work equally well for a younger Italian customer comparing low-cost plans on price.

Price still opens the door

For all the talk about personalization, loyalty apps and lifestyle bundles, the fundamentals have not disappeared. Across the five markets, price remains the most important factor when consumers choose a new provider, followed by network performance, signal coverage, service reliability and handset discounts.

That is an important reality check. A rewards program cannot rescue an overpriced plan, poor coverage or unreliable service.

Circles CEO and co-founder Rameez Ansar puts it this way:

“What this research makes clear is that European telcos are not facing just one loyalty problem, but a different one in every market. While price and network quality remain the price of entry, they no longer explain who stays and who leaves. The real differentiator is whether an operator understands what a specific customer values and can act on it. After all, bundles, rewards and personalized offers only build loyalty if it’s relevant to that customer, not just available to them. At Circles, we have partnered operators globally to move from generic retention programs to ones that are tested against real customer value. The operators who get this right will not just reduce churn; they will set the standard for what loyalty means in an increasingly converged, commoditized market.”

Bundles are losing their lock-in effect

The report also challenges one of telecom’s longest-running assumptions: that customers become harder to lose once fixed and mobile services are bundled together.

Oliver Wyman’s European research found that in the UK, Italy and Germany, fewer than 43% of consumers held fixed and mobile services with the same provider, and convergence did not reliably prevent mobile churn. Spain is even more revealing: high convergence has not stopped low-cost operators attracting switchers.

READ MORE: Fixed-Mobile Bundles Drive Higher Spending Among Telecom Customers

Bundles can still simplify billing and raise customer value. But penetration should not be confused with loyalty. Operators need to measure whether convergence actually lowers churn, raises satisfaction and improves lifetime value.

When networks start to look the same

The next competitive layer may emerge once acceptable network performance becomes something customers simply expect.

Deloitte’s 2026 telecom outlook argues that consumers in developed markets can struggle to notice incremental network improvements. Its research found rewards were the leading non-price switching consideration in the Netherlands and Belgium and ranked second in the UK. Deloitte expects non-network differentiation to become increasingly important as network performance becomes harder for mainstream consumers to distinguish.

That gives loyalty programs a more meaningful role, but not every perk will work. Entertainment, device benefits, service recovery or price certainty only matter when they fit the customer. Generic benefit catalogues may add cost without changing behaviour.

For operators, four priorities stand out:

• Protect the core proposition first: keep pricing credible and connectivity dependable.
• Segment retention properly: market, age, value and behaviour matter.
• Measure outcomes: judge bundles, rewards and personalization by churn, profitability and customer lifetime value.
• Treat low-cost competition locally: Italy and Spain require a different response from Germany or the UK.

Loyalty becomes operational

Circles approaches the issue as both a digital telco operator and software provider, arguing that operators need a fuller customer view and the ability to test and change propositions quickly.

READ MORE: Europe’s 5G Wake-Up Call: Spectrum Policy Could Make or Break the Next Decade

That fits a wider European problem. GSMA Intelligence describes a mature mobile market with limited subscriber growth, intense competition and continued pressure to invest. Its latest analysis also points to declining revenue per user even as data demand and network costs continue to rise.

In that environment, loyalty becomes less about contractual friction and more about proving value continuously.

Conclusion

The most interesting part of Circles’ analysis is not the 53% switching figure itself. It is what that number says about the weakening power of traditional telecom lock-in.

Low-cost operators and MVNOs are making price comparison easier, while digital-first brands are training customers to expect simpler propositions. Deloitte’s work suggests that once networks feel “good enough,” differentiation shifts toward rewards, experience and relevance.

That does not mean every operator should copy a digital challenger or launch another loyalty scheme. Premium operators with genuinely better coverage, service or enterprise capabilities can destroy value by chasing the lowest price, while perks will not compensate for a weak core offer.

The stronger strategy is more disciplined: identify who is actually at risk, understand what each segment values and intervene with something measurable before the porting request arrives. In Europe’s increasingly commoditized mobile market, loyalty is no longer something a bundle creates automatically. It is something operators have to keep earning.