A year of heavy marketing of mobile broadband has pushed the mobile phone networks ahead of WiFi hotspots as the most popular way of accessing the internet on the move, according to a survey of UK mobile broadband users by Point Topic.
The study shows that the UK mobile phone companies have managed to grow their market share to 47% of users accessing the internet away from home or work. This compares to 42% who prefer WiFi hotspots. A year earlier the ratio was 40:30 in favour of WiFi.
The research also reveals that 26% of those who use a mobile network to access the internet are with O2. Orange and Vodafone each take about 20% of the market. T-Mobile and 3 have 14% and 12% respectively.
“But O2 isn’t the first choice of the new wave users who’ve got dongles or data cards to connect to the network,” said Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic. “Vodafone is top in dongle-user market share with 24% of respondents. O2 comes in at 23% followed by Orange, T-Mobile and 3.”
It is much more difficult to get users to identify their preferred WiFi operators as most of them are more likely to think of WiFi access in terms of where they do it rather than which network they use. However, BT Openzone came top of the operators that were identified.
Only 10% of mobile internet users say they plan to change operator in the next six months, although this may relate to the lengthy contracts often required for MI users, said Point Topic. Those that are churning tend to be at the younger and lower income end of the spectrum.
Recent data from Bango revealed that mobile web usage is not only gaining traction in the United States but soon will surpass the UK (see US Mobile Web Usage To Overtake UK).
According to Bango, the top five countries accessing the mobile web via Bango in July 2008 were the UK at 19.35%, the US at 18.88%, India at 10.82%, South Africa at 8.82% and Indonesia at 4.08%.
Mobile internet devices will grow to 1.2 billion by 2012 predicts chip maker Intel (see 1.2bn Mobile Internet Devices By 2012)
Speaking in July as the company announced a new series of chips for mobile internet products, Gadi Singer, head of Intel’s mobility group, said: “The demand is there and the need is there and our technology can meet those needs.”
Related Links
