But want to keep up with their broadband
Consumers in the UK would rather reduce spending on their mobile phone than on fixed broadband, according to research into the effects of the credit crunch crisis from YouGov. Nearly half of them also think they will be spending less on their mobile services in the coming year.
50% of respondents said that they could live without their mobile phone, but that it would be a hassle, with 27% describing their phone as a necessity. But 63% said that their broadband fixed connection represents a necessity.
Secondly, 24% of respondents said that they would reduce their mobile phone spend in the coming year. No users thought their spend on fixed broadband would decrease over the next year.
Finally, asked how they would change their phone usage when their contract ends, 11% said they would keep the same phone but go on a reduced contract. 33% of pre pay customers said they would be changing their phones less frequently. YouGov said that this meant that 44% of all mobile users would be more frugal with their expenditure in the next year.
The reasons for the disparity between mobile and fixed broadband services seems to be that whilst the mobile industry likes to brag that mobiles have become indispensable to people’s lives, it is in fact fixed broadband that they could not do without.
It is in front of their home PCs, rather than on their mobiles, that most people are doing their banking, shopping, paying bills, reading websites and keeping in touch with friends and family.
The mobile industry is working hard to change this, of course, but on the evidence of this one survey, it seems it has some way to go before it makes itself quite as indispensable as it would like to be.
YouGov surveyed 1985 respondents that it says formed a sample representation of the GB adult population in terms of age,gender, social grade and region.