Nearly one in four Japanese consumers mull ISP switch

Wi-Fi quality, price, features, and poor customer support are key factors to ISP switch.

An Airties study revealed that 24% of Japanese consumers are considering changing their home internet service provider (ISP) in the near future.

Quality and prices are the leading factors for ISP switching, with 38% of respondents citing dissatisfaction with the quality of home Wi-Fi or Internet, whilst 34% cited pricing considerations.

Other factors include missing advanced features and poor customer support.

Silent suffering is also pervasive, as 51% experience noticeable interruptions, but only 18% contacted their ISP over the past year.

Very dissatisfied consumers are five times more likely to churn, with 61% of respondents saying they are currently very dissatisfied with their ISPs and are considering switching.

The survey showed that 54% of consumers who switched ISPs in the past year said they pay the same or more than they did previously.

Twenty-three percent of households also said they are using one Wi-Fi extender in addition to the main router, whilst 3% said they have two extenders, and 1% said they have three extenders.

It also found that around 60% of potential churn in Japan could be avoided by investing in better quality, features, and customer support, independent of pricing.

Forty-four percent of respondents would be interested in a “guaranteed or smart Wi-Fi” service and would be willing to pay an additional $3.25 (JPY 500) to $13 (JPY 2,000) per month.

Consumers are also looking for features such as cybersecurity, a mobile app for network management, automated speed/stability optimisation, and parental controls.

Japanese households also want AI-driven network management, with 76% citing that they want Wi-Fi systems that automatically optimise performance for important activities, whilst 74% say they want the ability to manually prioritise bandwidth themselves.

1 US$ = 153.89 JPY