Even in the U.S. market, mobile Internet access is a viable substitute for fixed Internet access.
About seven percent of U.S. residents own a smartphone but do not buy fixed network high speed access service at home, and therefore rely on their smartphones for access. That data point provides some evidence about consumer ability to substitute mobile access for fixed Internet access.
About 15 percent report they have a limited number of ways to get access to the Internet aside from using their phones, according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Today nearly 66 percent of U.S. residents own a smartphone and 19 percent rely to some degree on a smartphone for online access.
Those of you familiar with Internet access trends in the developing world will not be surprised to find that smartphone-only Internet access is correlated with income, education and age.
About 15 percent of U.S. residents 18 to 29 years old are heavily dependent on a smartphone for online access.
Some 13 percent of U.S. residents with an annual household income of less than $30,000 per year are smartphone-dependent, compared to one percent of residents in households earning more than $75,000 per year.
Likewise, some 12 percent of African Americans and 13 percent of Latinos are smartphone-dependent, compared with four percent of whites.
Separately, a U.K. survey found that 33 percent of mobile phone users claim they do not use voice at all.
“Voice” or “making phone calls” were not on a list of the top 10 most-used mobile phone features in a recent poll of 1,000 people in the United Kingdom, conducted by Oxygen8.
Granted, the online poll appears not based on a randomizing process, so likely is not representative of the “typical” user, but the results are a surprise, nonetheless.
