Consumer Cellular has claimed the top spot in Market Force Information's wireless brand ranking for a third consecutive report, with the 2026 Wireless Benchmark Study placing the value carrier ahead of the national networks on overall brand performance and on the firm's Customer Loyalty Index. Cricket joins it at the front of the field.
The study drew on fieldwork with 1,647 US consumers and represents the third wave of the programme, following data collected in 2023 and 2025. It tracks provider experience metrics alongside brand image, churn behaviour, device satisfaction and demographic trends.
A widening gap in monthly bills
Verizon subscribers report an average monthly bill of $160.04, while TracFone customers pay $25.00. The two figures point to distinct retail positions: national networks price on network ownership and subscriber scale, whereas value brands compete almost entirely on the headline monthly price.
Brand performance scores follow a similar split. Consumer Cellular's score of 72.3 percent is more than double AT&T's 34.2 percent.
Incumbents below the loyalty threshold
Loyalty readings track the same shape. AT&T's Customer Loyalty Index score of 3.90 and Verizon's 3.96 both sit below the 25th-percentile mark of 4.08, leaving the two largest incumbents at the bottom of the field.
Switching intent is broad but not yet a rush. Almost one in five customers, or 19 percent, say they are actively weighing a move to another provider. Cost of service holds the top stated reason for a third year running, cited by 12 percent of respondents, with promotional deal-seeking named by 10.3 percent. Network factors remain in play: data speed and call clarity round out the top four at 8.5 percent and 7 percent respectively, suggesting engineering quality still shifts decisions as coverage differences narrow.
Price-led churn among former T-Mobile customers
The behaviour of customers who have already left is more direct. Among former T-Mobile customers, 76.6 percent cite monthly service cost as their reason for leaving. Market Force reads this as a price-led churn pattern that registers in the survey as pressure on bills rather than an immediate exodus: most switching recirculates among the big three, and long tenure keeps accounts in place well after satisfaction begins to slide.
Sherri Weed, chief operating officer at Market Force Information, described the pattern as a structural disconnect between market dominance and customer satisfaction, arguing that the carriers with the largest subscriber bases are not delivering the experiences that create loyalty. She framed that gap as a business risk rather than only a customer-experience problem, and said the data makes the point increasingly clear over time.
Service issues ease as hardware ranking shifts
Service problems have eased across the industry, falling from 30 percent of customers in 2023 to 22 percent in the latest wave. Roughly a fifth of the customer base still runs into an issue, and that residue lands on support teams and field engineering rather than on the tariff sheet.
Hardware rankings moved as well: Samsung finished ahead of iPhone on the study's Brand Competitiveness Ranking for the first time in its history.