This paper examines consumers' intra-operator mobile phone plan switching in Ireland. It models the factors associated with switching outcomes, including the direction of change in expenditure and whether those who are observed to switch plans tend to arrive at more or less optimal plans given their usage. A dataset is employed that combines survey responses from mobile consumers with the same consumers' actual usage data in the period 2017–2019; this was collected by Ireland's national regulatory authority. The cost each consumer would have incurred on every plan offered in the market based on their observed usage is estimated. Using models that allow for selection into switching, associations between switching outcomes and demographic and user characteristics are modelled. Controls are included for plan and user attributes, including demographics and proxies for user sophistication and access to alternative communication options. A substantial proportion of intra-operator switchers in the sample increase expenditures when they switch plan. While many switchers move to plans that are more optimal given their usage, a slight majority move to plans that charge a higher price premium over the best available plan (based on observables) than the consumer's previous plan did. Few observable characteristics of consumers or plans seem to be significantly associated with which switches achieve greater optimality, although fixed operator effects are large and significant. These findings add to the weight of evidence which finds that many consumers fail to arrive at the best price even after switching.

本文研究了爱尔兰消费者的运营商内部移动电话计划转换。它对与转换结果相关的因素进行建模，包括支出变化的方向，以及观察到转换计划的人是否倾向于根据其使用情况得出或多或少的最佳计划。使用了一个数据集，将移动消费者的调查回复与 2017-2019 年期间相同消费者的实际使用数据相结合；这是由爱尔兰的国家监管机构收集的。根据观察到的使用情况，估计每个消费者在市场上提供的每个计划中所产生的成本。使用允许选择切换的模型，对切换结果与人口统计和用户特征之间的关联进行建模。包含计划和用户属性的控件，包括人口统计和用户复杂性的代理以及对替代通信选项的访问。样本中相当大比例的运营商内部切换者在切换计划时会增加支出。虽然许多切换者转向使用更优的计划，但与消费者之前的计划相比，少数人转向收取比最佳可用计划（基于可观察到的）更高的价格溢价的计划。尽管固定运营商的影响很大且很重要，但消费者或计划的可观察到的特征似乎很少与哪些开关实现更大的最优性显着相关。这些发现增加了证据的重要性，这些证据发现许多消费者即使在转换之后也未能达到最优惠的价格。