Why do French households stay with an operator they could leave any day? For the first wave of the Nabel Telecoms & Media Tracker, we interviewed 305 people who choose their household’s phone, internet and streaming subscriptions, all of them in a voice interview with the Nabel agent.
TRACKER
Free to Leave, Staying Put Technology, Media & Telecom · France
Sept 2026 fieldwork · 305 respondents · 17 min median interview
No contract holds them. Habit does.
78%
won’t switch operator in the next twelve months, although just as many have a mobile plan with no commitment or from a low-cost brand. What would make them leave: a price rise, for about four in ten.
41%
of content subscribers find what they pay too high, yet only 19% plan to cancel a subscription this year. A third of households pay for no content at all, half of those aged 55+.
20%
trust Netflix most among twelve telecom, streaming and TV brands, more than the four operators combined (13%). 35% trust none of them.
54%
rate their trust in the news media 5/10 or lower. They cross-check rather than tune out, and about fifteen already ask an AI like Copilot or ChatGPT to check a story.
They’re not secure, there’s too much data theft. […] My bank card got hacked for a €2 purchase, and it cost me €98.
Man, 55+, talking to the Nabel agent · quote translated from French, audio shortened
Methodology
Mainland France · 11–16 Sept 2026
305
respondents with a mobile or home internet plan in their name, who choose their household’s subscriptions alone or with someone else
206
complete voice interviews with the Nabel agent, plus 99 partial ones kept question by question
17 min
median length of a complete interview
5 days
of fieldwork.
Loyal until the next price rise
The full report goes further. 29 pages, in French:
- 6 findings on operators, content subscriptions, trust in brands and the news, and AI
- Three subscribers’ stories, and their own words transcribed word for word
- 3 opportunities for telecom operators, content platforms and media groups
- The interview guide and the full methodology