Consumer Cellular has claimed the top spot in Market Force Information’s wireless brand ranking for a third consecutive report. The 2026 Wireless Benchmark Study places the value carrier ahead of the national networks on overall brand performance and on the firm’s Customer Loyalty Index, with Cricket joining it at the front of the field.
The study drew on 1,647 US consumers and marks 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.
Monthly bills illustrate the gap in retail positioning. Verizon subscribers report an average monthly bill of $160.04, while TracFone customers pay $25.00. Market Force says the difference reflects two distinct approaches: national networks price on network ownership and subscriber scale, while value brands compete almost entirely on headline monthly price. Consumer Cellular’s brand performance score of 72.3 percent is more than double AT&T’s 34.2 percent.
Loyalty readings follow the same pattern. AT&T’s Customer Loyalty Index score of 3.90 and Verizon’s 3.96 both fall below the 25th-percentile mark of 4.08, leaving the two largest incumbents at the bottom of the field.
Switching intentions point to price as the main pressure point. Almost one in five customers, or 19 percent, are actively weighing a move to another provider. Cost of service holds the top stated spot for a third year running, cited by 12 percent of respondents, with promotional deal-seeking named by 10.3 percent. Network performance has not dropped out of the picture: data speed and call clarity round out the top four reasons at 8.5 percent and 7 percent respectively, suggesting engineering quality still shifts decisions as coverage differences narrow.
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. That is a price-led churn pattern, and the survey presents it as pressure on bills rather than an immediate stampede for the exits. Most switching recirculates among the big three, while long tenure keeps accounts in place well after satisfaction begins to slide.
“What we’re seeing is a structural disconnect between market dominance and customer satisfaction,” said Sherri Weed, COO at Market Force Information. “The carriers with the largest subscriber bases are not delivering the experiences that create loyalty. That’s not just a CX problem, it’s a business risk, and the data makes that very clear over time.”
Service problems have eased across the industry, dropping from 30 percent of customers in 2023 to 22 percent in the latest wave. Roughly a fifth of the base still runs into an issue, and that residue lands on support teams and field engineering rather than on the tariff sheet.
Hardware rankings also moved. Samsung finished ahead of iPhone on the Brand Competitiveness Ranking for the first time in the study’s history.