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Follow UsBARCELONA, SPAIN: Mobile World Congress (MWC), the first major survey of European and the US mobile users conducted during the economic slump gave telecom industry reasons to be optimistic.
Consumers intend to dramatically increase use of mobile data services over the next two years - with a significant ramp-up in the next 12 months.
The Tellabs-commissioned survey showed that up to 71 percent of consumers anticipate daily use of services such as mobile Internet. Yet mobile users continued to raise concerns about cost, speed and quality of service.
The research, conducted in the five large Western European countries and the United States by The Nielsen Company for Tellabs, analysed 10 mobile data services. It revealed that more than half of the approximately 200 million mobile data users in those countries expect to increase use in the next two years.
Jesse Goranson, senior vice president of Mobile Media, The Nielsen Company, said: "More significantly, according to the research, more than a quarter of the millions of consumers who do not use mobile data services today intend to start using them shortly. By delving deeper into consumer intent, the Tellabs survey comes just in time as the industry debates demand for services and capital requirements at MWC."
U.S. Europe
Current users -- For the surveyed data services,
average intended usage increase over the next
24 months was: 58% 55%
Non-users -- For the surveyed data services,
average intended usage over the next 24 months was: 27% 28%
In the surveyed countries alone, operators could expect more network traffic from around 175 million consumers for services such as mobile Internet, e- mail, photo uploading and multimedia messaging (MMS). Mobile data is clearly here to stay, offering operators a multi-million dollar opportunity.
Mobile data has become a consumer necessity
Pat Dolan, vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Tellabs, said: "Mobile data services are not a luxury, but a necessity that consumers plan to purchase despite economic conditions. By planning urgent and strategic network upgrades, operators can quickly and cost-efficiently address users' issues and meet increasing demands on networks."
The detailed breakdown of the top five services that non-users intend to start using shows that anticipated demand is not evenly split. The US consumers will drive more new mobile Internet use than Europeans: Around half of the US non-users of the mobile Internet intend to use it in the next two years, compared with a third of non-users in Europe.
Top Five Services U.S. Europe
Mobile Internet 49% 34%
MMS 38% 39%
Uploading photos 34% 27%
Software/app download 30% 30%
E-mail 28% 32%
Breakdown of intended use in the next two years amongst non-users
In the European countries close to 40 percent of non-users also expect to start using MMS. Italy tends to be the leading adopter across all services, while Germany shows comparatively low adoption rates.
Survey points to issues to be addressed
Consumers also highlighted the greatest issues operators need to address: cost (too expensive or unclear), speed, quality and reliability.
Pressure on networks would be compounded as 41 percent of European and 71 percent the US respondents anticipate daily use of mobile Internet services. Mobile e-mail is on a similar growth trajectory, as it is increasingly available through a range of mobile devices.
The sustained increase in high-bandwidth applications and corresponding data traffic would create significant challenges for mobile operators looking to maintain profitability. Since most of the growth is expected within the next 12 months, this issue demands immediate attention.
"In Tellabs' experience, timely, strategic changes to mobile operators' networks will enable them to reduce costs, increase speed of services and improve quality and reliability," said Dolan.
Operators that address these challenges early would take advantage of the increasing demand, while enhancing margins.