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Mobile usage and in-car kits

Last updated 3/9/99


Contents

Results
- general mobile usage
- supplier used
- where people make calls from
- use of in-car kits

Questionnaire


Mobile Comparable Performance Indicators Initiative

Headlines
  • Just over 2 in 5 respondents in this UK survey claimed to use a mobile phone. 
  • The most popular place from which calls are made was 'in buildings' with almost 9 in 10 mobile users ever making calls from here, and about 4 in 10 claiming to make most of their calls from here.  The least popular location for making calls was on the train or bus.
  • About 2 in 3 mobile users claim to ever make calls from their car, van or lorry, but only a 1 in 4 say this is where they make the majority of their calls from.
  • Just under a quarter of mobile users claimed to use any form of hands-free car kit, and about 7% use a car kit with a specially fitted external antenna.

 

Introduction
CMU commissioned research agency Ipsos-RSL to carry out some questions on their 'Capibus', a weekly omnibus survey amongst a sample of 2177 adults aged 15+, representative of the adult population across the UK.

The questions asked about general mobile phone usage, locations where customers make calls from and use of in-car kits.  The results are available with the following information - gender, age, social grade,ethnicity, working status, children in household, income, number in household, region, acorn classification, car ownership, use of telephone banking, internet at home, internet at work, type of mobile phone usage.  For further details contact Karen Metcalfe x8918.

Results

Mobile phone usage
Of the 2177 adults surveyed, 43% owned or had use of a mobile or in-car phone.  Of those using mobiles, 60% was personal use only, 7% business only and 31% for both business and personal.

Personal only usage was highest amongst the young (aged 15-34), higher social grades (ABC1s), high income groups (over £17.5k), and larger households with children.

Business and personal usage was highest amongst men, AB social grades, and those working full time with annual incomes of over £25k.

There were few demographic differences amongst the business only users.

Chart 1.   Mobile phone usage (Base=all adults 2177)

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Supplier used
The sample of UK respondents obtained in this research comprised the following mobile suppliers:

Vodafone  30%
BTCellnet  27%
Orange      16%
One2One  16%
Don't know/other 10%

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Call locations
Respondents were asked whether they ever make call from any of the following locations:

- car/van/lorry
- train/bus
- in the street
- in buildings

and which of location they make the most, second most, third most etc of their calls from.

Chart 2.   % mobile users making calls from the following locations (Base=mobile users 930)

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Chart 3.   Ranking of call frequency locations - 'most calls made from ..'

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Use of hands-free car kit
All mobile phone users were asked whether they, or anyone in their household, used nay special equipment which enables them to use their mobile phone when driving without holding the phone.

Just under a quarter (23%) of all mobile phone users claimed to use any form of hands-free car kit.  This rose to about a third amongst respondents using their phone for any business purposes.  Also more likely than average to use a kit were men, the AB social grades, those working full-time, and the high income bands.

Just under a third of car-kit users have an specially fitted external antenna on the car.  This equates to about 7% of mobile phone users.  This was higher amongst business users and lower amongst personal users.

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Questionnaire

Question 1

Do you, or anyone else in your household own or have use of any sort of mobile phone, for either business or personal use? This may be either a portable or in-car phone.

Yes – business use only (go to qn 2)
Yes – personal use only (go to qn 2)
Yes – both business and personal use (go to qn 2)
Yes – don’t know (go to qn 2)
No (end)
Don’t know/refused (end)

Question 2

If Q1 = yes

Thinking about the calls <you / the person in your household> makes on the mobile phone, do <you / they> make calls from any of the following locations …

In the car/van/lorry etc  Yes/no
On trains/buses            Yes/no
In the street              Yes/no
In buildings (eg home, office, shops etc) Yes/no

If yes on ANY – go to Q3
If no on ALL – go to Q4

Question 3

If Q2 = yes to any

Thinking about the locations where <you / they> make calls from, please could you rank these, in order of how frequently <you / they> make calls in these locations. Please start with the location where <you / they> make the most number of calls from.

(Filtering should only show those locations which received a ‘yes’ response at Q2)

(Answers should be coded 1=most frequent etc)

In the car/van/lorry etc
On trains/buses
In the street
In buildings (eg home, office, shops etc)

All go to Q4

Question 4

If Q1 = yes

Do you or anyone in your household use a hands-free car kit for making calls when driving? By this I mean any special equipment which enables you to use your mobile phone in the car without holding the phone.

Yes (go to Q5)
No (go to Q6)
Don’t know/refused (go to Q6)

Question 5

If Q4 = yes

Does this car kit have an external antenna on the car? (NOTE, Not the car radio aerial)

Yes (go to Q6)
No (go to Q6)
Don’t know (go to Q6)

Question 6

If Q1 = yes

Which company supplies your mobile phone?

Orange
Vodafone
BTCellnet
One2One
Don’t know/refused

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