I assume everyone has already read The Office for National Statistics published data on internet access in the UK issued last week :). The survey found that there have been significant changes in the way people connect to and use the Internet in recent years. No surprise there then.
There are a few “no surprises” such as the fact that the younger you are the more likely you are to use social networking and that LinkedIn is used more by men than women (with the associated equality in business issues I’m sure, like it or not).
Also over half of us (66 per cent of all adults) purchased goods or services over the Internet. Even my aged parents buy stuff online. Interestingly 31 per cent of us 2010 sold goods or services online (up from 21 per cent in a year).
The biggest wow factor was the number of people using their mobile phone to connect to the Internet. This rose by 6 million between 2010 and 2011 (fastest among those aged 16 to 24) and now amounts to 45 per cent of total Internet users. The time will come when there are more mobile internet users than fixed – my input.
What is slightly disappointing is the fact that the most recent data for business internet use is based on 2009 data in a report published on 26th November 2010 (actually entitled E-commerce and ICT activity 2009).
Perhaps the business community does work a little more slowly than consumers these days but this is such a fast moving world that data that is almost 2 years old seems positively stone aged.
On a side note my son is about to enter his second year at University and his first year in private accommodation. The communications needs of the five lads in his house are 1) fast broadband with unlimited data package and 2) an iPhone. No fixed line telephony thank you very much.
2 replies on “ONS report on internet usage shows huge growth in mobile use”
The figures for mobile internet use sound impressive, but they are slightly misleading – they make it sound as if mobile and fixed internet are mutually exclusive, which of course they aren’t. The figures don’t really tell us anything about the relative importance of fixed vs mobile internet.
My mobile plan is 500MB per month and is plenty for my needs, while my broadband allowance is 20 times higher and is regularly exceeded (yes, I need to change my broadband package!). The lion’s share of my data goes over the fixed network, and that doesn’t look likely to change anytime soon.
Yes I realise that fixed and mobile are not mutually exclusive. In fact I offload onto wifi wherever I can. This is mostly due to cost/performance. There is no denying that people’s habits are changing though when it comes to Internet access.