In some cases rental fees are being introduced if customers switch suppliers.

New retailers will be allowed to offer lower prices as a way to entice customers to switch.

Estimates are that no more than a few thousand residential customers have switched their service.

Texas officials consider this crucial since a problem in California was that most customers did not switch providers and create a competitive market.

After the 10 percent rate cut, the 229 marketers that are trying to get customers to switch have had a hard time offering additional savings.

Debts to a supplier of more than £200 would usually have to be cleared before a customer can switch.

Yet, so far, a minuscule 25,000 customers out of 9.9 million have switched providers.

Some proprietors say the real point of the price increase is to persuade customers to switch main courses.

The strategy works on the expectation that customers will switch to the new brand because of the lower price.

This allows customers to switch to another provider while preserving their phone numbers.