Insights from US Telco Consumer Survey 2026

Consumers Want to Earn Their Way Out of Their Phone Bill. Telcos Should Let Them

More than half of U.S. consumers say they'd change where they shop, eat, and spend just to make their phone bill smaller.

That finding comes from the Circles Consumer Survey, conducted in May 2026 with 1,000 U.S. adults by Dynata. The study examined consumer willingness to adopt mobile services from nontraditional providers like banks and retailers, how everyday loyalty rewards influence provider choice, and how much consumers trust telcos with their personal data. The answers point to a telecom loyalty model overdue for transformation, and to the phone bill as a household budget line item ripe for gamification. 

Free streaming perks aren't buying loyalty anymore

Telco loyalty programs have run the same playbook for years: Bundle a streaming subscription, add a rewards tier, hope customers stay. Consumers aren't responding. Only 17% of our respondents named rewards or loyalty benefits as the top factor in choosing a mobile provider, while 51% pointed to lower monthly cost. Attachment to the category itself is even thinner, with just 14% citing a preference for traditional telecom providers as a major concern about switching to a nontraditional brand.

Consumers still want rewards, but they want rewards matching how they actually live and spend. Deloitte Digital found that 73% of consumers want personalized loyalty program rewards, yet only 45% of brands offer them. Deloitte's 2025 Consumer Loyalty Survey of more than 9,800 consumers tells the same story, with 86% rating financial rewards and simplicity as the most important program attributes and only 60% satisfied with the personalization they currently get. 

Consumers will change how they spend to shrink their phone bill

The idea of reducing or fully covering a monthly mobile bill through everyday cashback rewards appeals to 68% of our respondents (30% very, 38% somewhat). And 58% are likely to change their spending habits and brand choices specifically to earn rewards that lower their phone bill, while only 13% say they're unlikely to do so.

Asked where they'd most want to earn those bill-reducing rewards, consumers pointed to the spending they already do every week:

Rewards like these give consumers a reason to engage with their provider every time they spend, and they give providers a loyalty mechanism that compounds with daily life.

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Retailers and banks have an opening to claim the mobile relationship

Half of consumers (50%) would be interested in mobile service from a retailer they shop with frequently if it included loyalty perks, and 38% would consider switching to a mobile plan integrated into their primary bank's app. Trust gives banks an especially strong position, since 59% of consumers trust their bank most with their personal data compared with just 20% who say the same of their mobile provider.

Network reliability and coverage tops the list of concerns about nontraditional providers at 38%, with data privacy close behind at 36%. Retailers and banks that build on proven telco infrastructure can answer the first concern on Day 1, and their existing trust advantage carries the second.

Zerofy shows the gamified phone bill already works

This model is already live in market. Circles.Life, our consumer brand in Singapore, runs the Zerofy cashback program, which lets subscribers earn unlimited instant cashback on everyday spending through the Circles Zerofy Cashback Card built with Airwallex and Visa. The program has delivered 5x growth in monthly transactions per user, a 10x increase in monthly spend, and a 30-point year-over-year jump in customer NPS. When everyday purchases reduce the phone bill, customers transact more often, spend more, and rate their provider higher.

The survey points to a new loyalty economy where the phone bill stops being a fixed cost consumers resent and becomes a balance they can shrink themselves. Circles is building toward that future as the pioneer of the world's first AI Digital Mobile Operator, helping telcos complete the telco-to-techco transformation with AI, data intelligence, and ecosystem partnerships that turn everyday spending into loyalty.

Want to see how a gamified loyalty model could work for your subscribers? Get your free SaaS demo.