Telecom Lead India: Ericsson ConsumerLab report said 40-45
percent of respondents said they would use internet on their mobile phones more
if they had access to better speed.
Most important reasons for a mobile internet user to choose a
specific plan: network quality and coverage; data service pricing; how easy it
is to understand the data plan.
The Smarter Mobile Broadband study is based on interviews
with 2,300 mobile internet users aged between 16-59 years old in the US, UK,
Indonesia and Brazil.
The study found differences in how respondents react about
traffic management and charging concepts. Some elements were deemed attractive
in all markets, while some had appeal only in certain markets showing that
offers and plans attractiveness vary among all countries in the world.
“Users’ previous experiences affect the way they
rate the more personalized and dynamic offerings that smarter traffic
management and charging allows. Users from the UK and US who have experience
with unlimited plans are more cautious about moving to differentiated plans.
This is because they are not used to having to think about their online habits.
However, in the primarily prepaid markets of Brazil and Indonesia, the concepts
were viewed more positively. People in those markets are used to paying for
what they use and topping up when necessary, and therefore they don’t perceive
it as much of a restriction to their current plan,” said Cecilia
Atterwall, head of Ericsson ConsumerLab.
How to attract new customers
If telecom operators identify solutions to the following
inputs from this survey, they can win more customers for mobile broadband.
40-45 percent of respondents said they would use their
mobile phones more if they had access to better internet speed.
30-45 percent said that lower price of data is a key element
to increase usage.
30-40 percent said that a better battery life for the mobile
phone is also important.
30-40 percent said that having a better network coverage
also influences usage.
Many consumers also express frustrations about paying for a
plan that is not fully used, this would in turn favor more personalized price
plans.
In Brazil, users were most in favor of selecting and paying
for specific services, while in Indonesia users were more concerned with
boosting speed.
In the US and UK, one of the two most appealing concepts was
the ability to control user data cost while roaming.
Users from US and UK focus on general internet browsing, email,
social networking, Wi-Fi access and map services.
In Brazil people very much use it for internet browsing,
social networking and instant messaging, while social networking in particular
is the primary service in Indonesia.
