Some 24pc of Irish homes are now ‘mobile only’ with no fixed line telecoms subscription, a new survey commissioned by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) revealed this afternoon.
According to the quarterly Trends survey, which was conducted on behalf of ComReg by Amarach Consulting, mobile subscription levels continue to exceed household fixed line penetration in the residential market, with younger demographic age groups, lower income groups and singles most likely to be “mobile only” households.
The survey claims that broadband connections continued to grow in the residential market at the expense of standard dial-up internet connections. Unsurprisingly, DSL is the most dominant means of broadband internet access, followed up by cable broadband services.
Almost 40pc of Irish consumers, the survey suggests, are aware of 3G services, with around 7pc of the overall sample of 1,000 people between the ages of 15 and 74 suggesting they are likely to subscribe to 3G in the next three months.
It emerged that 15-24 year-olds indicated the most interest in subscribing to 3G. This age group also constitutes 50pc of the market for current mobile multimedia services.
Some 69pc of Irish households also have some form of pay-TV sevice, while 32pc subscribed to digital TV.
Amarach also surveyed 250 people living in border counties to ascertain their attitudes and experiences of inadvertent cross-border roaming onto UK mobile networks, even though they were still in the Republic of Ireland. It is estimated that 63pc of those in border counties had inadvertently roamed onto UK networks.
Although 84pc of respondents expressed concern at additional charges for making and receiving calls while inadvertently roaming onto UK networks, only 1pc had received advice from their mobile operator on what to do if their handset was receiving a UK network signal.
It is understood that ComReg and its UK counterpart Ofcom have established a Joint Working Group to examine a number of cross border telecoms issues, including cross-border roaming.
By John Kennedy
