The Office of Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation of Cyprus (OCECPR) has completed its sixth annual survey on consumer perceptions of the quality of mobile communications.
The results showed that the overall level of subscriber satisfaction remains high, although the number of signal interference incidents and official complaints still demonstrated a slight negative trend compared to the previous year.
The agency’s market observatory team developed a detailed survey structure, and the fieldwork in May 2026 was commissioned to Pulse Market Research Ltd. A total of 1,207 respondents participated in the survey, of whom 812 lived in urban agglomerations and the remaining 395 represented rural areas. The average satisfaction rating with operators’ services was 8.4 points out of a possible ten, which is symbolically lower than last year’s figure of 8.5 points. However, experts attribute this slight decline to more frequent signal reception interruptions, which are being recorded somewhat more often than a year earlier.
The main motives for Cypriots when choosing or switching mobile providers continue to be favourable tariffs, connection reliability, and coverage quality. One in five subscribers considers the possibility of switching to another operator, and this figure has remained unchanged since 2025. The share of users who had objective grounds for lodging a complaint rose from 16% to 17%, indicating growing customer demands regarding service levels. At the same time, satisfaction with the complaint-handling procedure declined noticeably compared with the previous reporting period.
When selecting a tariff plan or operator, consumers primarily focus on attractive prices and special offers — this factor was cited as the leading one by 46% of respondents. In second place by importance was the reputation for reliability (27%), although this showed a decline of as much as ten percentage points relative to 2025. Closing the top three key criteria was the quality of network coverage, mentioned by 24% of participants. Notably, the hierarchy of preferences is virtually identical for residents of major cities and those in remote areas, with low prices and advantageous promotions remaining the decisive trigger for choosing an operator for a quarter of all respondents.
As for the reasons for switching providers, two circumstances that have consistently appeared in previous years’ surveys lead the way: the desire to save on calls and services (37%) and the wish to improve the quality of voice calls through another operator’s network (17%). Meanwhile, consumers’ perception of the price-to-quality ratio showed a positive shift, rising from 8.1 to 8.2 points.
Technical failures remain a noticeable part of the everyday user experience. Almost one in four subscribers experiences a complete loss of network at least once a month — this figure reached 24%, up two points from the previous year. 21% of respondents complained about deteriorated speech intelligibility during calls (an increase of three points), 17% reported dropped connections, and 15% reported calls being redirected straight to voicemail. At the same time, delays in the delivery of text messages became less noticeable (an improvement of two points to 11%), while voicemail delays remained at 6%. Particular attention should be paid to the fact that the quality of mobile internet draws complaints from 27% of users (up two points), with young people aged 18–29 experiencing such inconveniences noticeably more often than other age groups.
Despite the presence of technical imperfections, only 17% of respondents considered that they had solid grounds for an official complaint against their operator over the past year, with the main reasons relating to general service issues. However, of this group, only 41% actually decided to file a complaint (compared with 44% a year earlier), indicating a decline in confidence in the effectiveness of such appeals. Satisfaction with how providers resolved disputed situations fell from 5.6 to 5.1 points, and this is one of the most concerning signals for operators.
Finally, analysis of consumer sentiment shows that 20% of subscribers are considering the possibility of switching operators, while 2% are already actively looking for a new offer. These are predominantly people aged 40–49, whose current satisfaction with services is rated at 7.5 points and with price quality at 7.2 points. Interestingly, within this group as many as 68% noted the presence of periodic connectivity problems, making them potentially the most mobile audience for telecom market marketers.
Source: en.philenews.com https://cyprusbutterfly.com.cy/news/kachestvo-mobilnoj-svyazi-kipre-ostavlyaet
