According to new research, the type of mobile phone that a consumer has purchased plays a more important role in their satisfaction then the network that they are on.

Mobile phone carriers often vie among each other for customer retention, but one thing working in their favor is that despite number portability, it is no fun to change carriers whether it's a personal account or an enterprise with multiple employees. There is often upfront expense for new equipment, and then the hassle of porting all of your data such as address books, calenders and apps. If you want to keep the same device, it's rare that you can just swap SIM cards and jump to another network with the same phone. Satisfaction among iPhone users is basically the same across networks, even though Verizon has the best track record for dropped calls.