Hi Rich
Your paper is very timely for me. I am trying to square the following two claims: - According to UK's regulator, Ofcom, in the first quarter of 2008 6 percent of UK internet users aged 16 and over were using mobile broadband (The Communications Market 2008: p 300 - available from http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/cmr08/) - According to the UK's mobile trade organisation. The Mobile Data Association In December 2007, nearly a quarter of mobile users in UK accessed the internet from mobile devices (Press release 18 Feb 08 press release, available from http://www.text.it/mediacentre/press_release_list.cfm. (However, according the website now, the Mobile Data Association are still trying to work out how to measure mobile internet use (See http://www.text.it/mobileweb/ ).) I suspect, from your paper, the answer is that the Ofcom figure is right, and as you observe, a few people are using the mobile internet a great deal, while most don't use it at all. Also, you might be interested to know that according to the Ofcom report cited above: - the introduction of the iPhone in the UK in July 2008 marked a "step change" in the use of the internet through mobile phones but that "the most significant change" between summer 2007 and summer 2008 was the growth of mobile connectivity via laptops (p300). (BTW do your figures include laptop downloads?) - The fact that three-quarters of mobile broadband users were using it within the home suggests that it might compete with fixed line access (p 71) but one third of mobile broadband users claimed it was a substitute for fixed line internet (p 302). Ofcom argued that, at least in the shorter term (in the economic sense), the slower speed and capacity constraints on mobiles will limit the extent to which mobile broadband will be used instead of fixed line broadband (p 302). I look forward to hearing from others! Lynne Hamill Dept of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. ________________________________ From: [email protected] on behalf of [email protected] Sent: Sun 05/04/2009 18:28 To: [email protected] Subject: [mobile-society] The rise of mobile divides Hello all, I am publishing a short paper on the Ning site where I develop the idea of mobile divides. I am interested in the differences between the power users in advanced countries that use a lot of IP stuff, the user in the third world and the sort of soccer mom/dad user that is somewhere in the middle. A lot of attention goes to the first group but the real base of use is often among the other two. I am interested in any comments. The link to the posting is: http://mobilesociety.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-rise-of-mobile-divides <http://mobilesociety.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-rise-of-mobile-divides> There is a further link to the paper there. Rich L. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mobile-society" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mobile-society?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
