Swedes prefer text to telephone calls
Swedes sent a total of 16.3 billion text messages in 2009, an increase of 65 percent on 2008 and more than the number of calls made on the country's mobile telecom networks, a new report from the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (Post- och telestyrelsen - PTS).
The report also shows that mobile broadband is continuing to grow at breakneck speed with the number of subscriptions up 50 percent from the end of 2008 to 1,310,000 on December 31st 2009.
"It is clear that Swedish consumers want higher speeds and mobile services. Demand is driven by services development and through changes in use among young consumers," said Katarina Kämpe at PTS in a statement.
Consumers are also demanding faster speeds with 40 percent of subscription from Swedish telecom companies now promising mobile broadband hook ups at speeds of 10 Mbit/s or more.
With speeds on the rise Swedes are also increasingly using their telephones to surf the internet, with traffic for mobile data services up 103 percent in 2009 in comparison with 2008.
The study also confirms reports that Swedes now spend longer talking on mobile phones than on fixed lines for the first time. Calls via mobile networks accounted for 47.3 percent of the total number of call minutes in 2009, up from 41.8 percent in 2008.
The PTS study is entitled The Swedish Telecommunications Market and is an annual survey of consumer internet and mobile communications markets in Sweden.
Sweden leads the world in mobile phone penetration with 91 percent owning mobile phones against a European Union average of 81 percent. Swedes held a total of 11.6 million subscriptions in 2009, 9.14 million of which were personal in a country of 9.34 million people.
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The report also shows that mobile broadband is continuing to grow at breakneck speed with the number of subscriptions up 50 percent from the end of 2008 to 1,310,000 on December 31st 2009.
"It is clear that Swedish consumers want higher speeds and mobile services. Demand is driven by services development and through changes in use among young consumers," said Katarina Kämpe at PTS in a statement.
Consumers are also demanding faster speeds with 40 percent of subscription from Swedish telecom companies now promising mobile broadband hook ups at speeds of 10 Mbit/s or more.
With speeds on the rise Swedes are also increasingly using their telephones to surf the internet, with traffic for mobile data services up 103 percent in 2009 in comparison with 2008.
The study also confirms reports that Swedes now spend longer talking on mobile phones than on fixed lines for the first time. Calls via mobile networks accounted for 47.3 percent of the total number of call minutes in 2009, up from 41.8 percent in 2008.
The PTS study is entitled The Swedish Telecommunications Market and is an annual survey of consumer internet and mobile communications markets in Sweden.
Sweden leads the world in mobile phone penetration with 91 percent owning mobile phones against a European Union average of 81 percent. Swedes held a total of 11.6 million subscriptions in 2009, 9.14 million of which were personal in a country of 9.34 million people.
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