Each quarter, the Commission for Communications Regulation, that’s ComReg to me and you, release a Key Data Report. This ComReg report provides great insights into Irish mobile users. We’ve dissected the report to being you the most interests nuggets of info on how the Irish public are using their smartphones.
Average monthly spend
Many are likely to believe they spend too much on their smartphone every month. The truth is the current average monthly cost of running a smart phone has declined significantly since the same period in 2013. Billpay or contracted users have seen the average monthly cost reduce by €5.23 to €34.20 per month. Prepay or pay as you go customers have witnessed their average monthly costs reduce by €1.52 to €14.98 per month. These reductions are due to changing landscapes in the way bundles are offered to customers, including reduced roaming charges and fixed line provider benefits.
Most popular Irish mobile network
Currently, the Irish marketplace is arguably at it’s most competitive. Following Three’s merger with O2, new networks such as iD Mobile and Virgin Media Mobile were given a stage to play upon, joining several long-standing networks. One such network, Three, have witnessed the initial gains made by Three’s merger with O2 drop off since the same period year previous to the tune of 1.4%, leaving them just slightly short of top spot. Still top dog in the Irish mobile landscape is Vodafone, with 38.7% of the market locked down. As mentioned, Three enjoy 34.9% of the market while eir and Meteor complete the dominating trio with 18.6%. To add some content, the next network provider is Tesco Mobile with 5.8%. While they are still some way off the big dogs, Tesco Mobile does continue to grow steadily.
How are Irish people using their phones?
It’s no big surprise that the way we are using our mobile phones has changed dramatically over the past few years.
SMS and Calls
The most striking statistic from the above graph, grabbed from the ComReg report, is not the most surprising. Mobile phone users tend to only use SMS if they really want to really get a message across; pardon the pun. Either that, or you are texting a parent who spent so long learning SMS they couldn’t be bothered learning WhatsApp. WhatsApp has killed SMS messaging, which shows a 14.8% decline since the same time last year. This comes as no surprise given WhatsApp’s to its international appeal, emojis and rich content sharing.
We’ve already covered how costs are reduced due to the way packages are being bundled together. Networks are generally becoming more generous with their minutes, meaning usage has been steadily increasing in recent years, visible in the same graph above. To further support this, users are now being given more freedom to call people on other networks, seen in the increased off-net call volumes.
Data
Of course, data is one of the most important things for mobile users these days. WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and Netflix, the list goes on. Users like their data, but also the quality of their data. With improved packages and improved technology, the Irish market has seen an increase of 38.6% of 4G network users. With the impending introduction of 5G, we’re sure Irish users are becoming increasingly excited about the potential to do even more on the go.
The report contains even more information that what we’ve gone into here. If you are a bit of a data nerd, or just like knowing who is the most dominant force in the market, the ComReg report is available for you to read over on the ComReg site.
