Survey of Individuals 2009 - Use of telephony and the Internet by Swedes - PTS-ER-2009:28

12/11/2009

Fixed telephony

• 15% indicate that they do not have fixed telephone in the household, which is an increased share compared to the previous year. The proportion of people without fixed telephony is significantly higher among younger individuals, for example 56% among those living in households where no one is over 26 years. Overall, 84% indicate that they have fixed telephone in the household.
• TeliaSonera is, as the study has shown also previous years, the largest operator on the fixed telephony market among consumers in Sweden. TeliaSonera has a market share of 55% followed by Tele2 with a share of 13%. ComHem has a market share of 8%, Bredbandsbolaget 6% and Glocalnet 5%. The study shows very small changes compared to 2008.
• The proportion who is generally satisfied with their current fixed telephony operator is generally unchanged from previous years and remains at just under 3 out of 4 persons (73%).
• Nearly 7 out of 10 persons (69%) buy other services from their fixed telephony operator. Overall, this is a minor decline compared to last year (72%). It is most common to purchase fixed broadband (51%) followed by mobile telephony (26%). The latter has fallen 11 percentage points compared to 2008. Nearly one in ten (9%) say that they buy mobile broadband service from their fixed telephony operator, which is an increase over the last year (7%).
• 6% state that they actively have changed operator for the subscription in the last six months. The proportion is unchanged compared to 2008.
• The most common reason for switching operator is still to get lower costs, while those who have not switched operator simply are satisfied with what the household has at present.
• The majority (63%) of the fixed phone users call both fixed phones as well as mobile phones. In other words, they show a mixed behavior.

IP-/broadband telephony

• Nearly one in four persons (23%) in Sweden between 16-75 years indicates that the household uses IP-/broadband telephony. The proportion is unchanged compared to 2008. The most common approach is to call via an ordinary wall jack.
• Nearly half (48%) of those using IP-/broadband telephony have experienced problems. Not being able to make calls, not being able to get a dialing tone and poor sound quality remains common problems.
• This year's survey also shows that about every third person in the country (30%) are willing to abandon the traditional fixed landline in favor of IP-/broadband telephony, out of which 11% have already done this.
  

Mobile telephony

• 97% of the population has mobile phones, most of whom use it for private purposes (95%).
• Nearly half of all Swedes are willing to abandon their fixed landline phone and only use their mobile phone. The proportion that has already done this has increased by 4 percentage points, from 9% to 13%, compared to last year. It is more common among young people to only use a mobile phone.
• The largest operator on the private mobile market in Sweden is TeliaSonera with a market share of 42% followed by Tele2/Comviq (25%) and Telenor (15%). The study shows small changes in market shares compared to 2008.
• The proportion who is generally satisfied with their current mobile operator is unchanged compared to 2008 (73%). The highest percentage of satisfied customers among the major players is found among TeliaSonera followed by Tele2/Comviq.
• The proportion who changed mobile provider in the last six months is 6%, which is an unchanged result compared to the previous year.
• The main reason for changing operator remains the same as previous years and is due to lower costs. Also, among those who has not changed operator, the study show a similar pattern as on the fixed telephony side. In other words, the individual is satisfied with the current service provider.
• The behavior among those who are already using SMS continues to grow. Every tenth person states that they on average send more than 10 SMS per day. Every third person in the age group 16-20 years send on average more than 20 SMS per day.
• Knowledge about the charging interval for mobile calls has increased. Nearly 4 in 10 (37%) argue that they know what their charging interval is.
• About every third person (30%) who traveled abroad within the EU over the past 12 months indicate that they received pricing information via SMS from the operator.
  

Internet and access to broadband/mobile broadband

• 91% of the Swedes between 16-75 years use the Internet. Almost everyone (99%) between 16 and 30 years use the Internet.
• 89% have Internet access at home, which is unchanged compared to last year, but an increase of 20 percentage points since 2002.
• TeliaSonera is the largest operator in the private Internet access market with a market share of 38%, followed by ComHem and Bredbandsbolaget with a share of 13% each.
• The proportion who is overall satisfied with their current Internet provider (64%) has increased by 7 percentage points compared to 2008. 72% of the customers to Bredbandsbolaget are generally satisfied. Glocalnet has the biggest increase in overall satisfaction among their customers, from 42% to 63%.
• 5% says that they have changed Internet provider in the last six months, which is no change compared to same period last year.
• Broadband is still the most common way to be connected to the Internet in Sweden (73%), with ADSL/VDSL as the most common broadband option (38%), but decreases by 11 percentage points compared to last year.
• One in ten (11%) say they are using mobile broadband as their main form of connection, which is an increase of 4 percentage points compared to 2008. 9% indicates that they are using only mobile broadband and no other form of connection as a supplement (last year the share was 5%). 21% are using mobile broadband, either as a main form of connection or as a supplement (last year the share was 14%).
• The evaluation of mobile broadband among the users shows similar results as last year. Just over every second person agree that their mobile broadband works well from home. Nearly one out of five cannot say whether they have the connection speed they pay for or if it works well outside the home. Every third person is experiencing limitations in transmission speed.
• 21% of the households paying for their own Internet subscriptions are willing to switch from fixed broadband to only use mobile broadband at home. 8% has already done the change. The most common reason for not switching is due to the fact that the household wants to keep the fixed broadband.
• About half of those who use the mobile phone for private purposes have not ordered any services via the mobile phone in the last six months. However, 6% state that they experienced problems.
  

TV

• 89% have access to television in the permanent housing and it is mainly ComHem (25%) and Boxer (23%) that delivers TV-broadcasts to these households.
• 18% have access to television in some form of other residents. 45% have free television, compared with 19% in 2006. The second most common option is to receive TV-broadcasts from Boxer in the second housing.
• Boxer experience a significant reduction in the customer base since 2006, both for TV-broadcasts to permanent housing (from 34% to 23%) and TV-broadcasts to second housing (from 47% to 36%).