Survey of Individuals 2010 - Use of telephony and the Internet by Swedes - PTS-ER-2010:25

11/11/2010

Fixed telephony

• Overall, 82% indicate that they have fixed telephony in the household. 18% indicate that they do not have fixed telephony, 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 is the share 65% among those living in households where no one is over 26 years. Close to 8 out of 10 people (78%) indicate that their household use traditional telephony as their fixed telephony solution, 17% use IP-telephony.
• TeliaSonera is, as the study has shown also previous years, the largest operator on the fixed telephony market with a market share of 54%. Tele2 follows TeliaSonera with a share of 15%. ComHem has a market share of 8%, Bredbandsbolaget 7% and Glocalnet 5%. The study shows very small changes compared to 2009.
• The proportion of people that is overall satisfied with their current fixed telephony operator is generally unchanged compared to previous years (72%).
• 4% state that they actively have changed operator for their subscription in the last six months. This proportion has decreased compared to 2009. The majority of those who have changed operator changed it more than 12 months ago (38%). Among those who actively have changed operator 64% indicate that everything went as it should and that the process of changing was fast.
• The most common reason for the household to change operator is to get lower costs. Those who have not changed operator indicate that it is not worth the trouble (30%) or that they use fixed telephony seldom and see no point in switching operator (25%).
• The majority (59%) use the household’s fixed telephone to call both fixed phones as well as mobile phones. In other words, they show a mixed behavior.
• 65% indicate that they did not experience any problems using fixed telephony during the last six months. Among those experiencing problems (30%), a proportion of 70% state that they had problems more seldom.
• Even in this year’s survey every third person (31%) is willing to refrain from using fixed telephony in favor of IP-telephony, of which 15% have already done it.

Mobile telephony

• 97% of the population has a mobile phone, most of whom use it for private purposes (96%).
• Among those who use a mobile phone for private calls 28% indicate that they use prepaid phone cards as form of payment for their subscription. This share has decreased 5 percentages compared to 2009. The majority of those who use their cell phone for private purposes have a traditional mobile subscription (68%).
• The largest operator on the private mobile market in Sweden is TeliaSonera with a market share of 40% followed by Tele2/Comviq (25%) and Telenor (15%). The study shows small changes in market shares compared to 2009.
• The proportion who is overall satisfied with their current mobile operator is 72% which is an unchanged share compared to 2009. TeliaSonera has the highest percentage of satisfied customers among the major operators (76%).
• 5% have changed mobile operator in the last six months, which is an unchanged result compared to the previous year.
• As with fixed telephony the main reason for changing operator is to get lower costs (41%). It is through friends and acquaintances that people are made aware of the operator they switch to (38%).
• The proportion of respondents that has experienced problems when changing operator has increased compared to 2009 (from 26% to 43%). Among those who did not switch operator 24% indicates that he or she use the mobile phone seldom and see no point in changing, and 20% that they prefer to have the same operator as the people they often call. 
• The behavior among those who are already using SMS is unchanged compared to last year.
• Nearly half (49%) is willing to refrain from using the household’s fixed telephone and only use their mobile phone. The share that has already done this has increased with 4 percentages, from 13% to 17% compared to 2009. It is more common among young people to only use their mobile phone.
• Knowledge about the charging interval for mobile calls has decreased compared to last year. 34% indicate that they know what their charging interval is compared to 37% in 2009.
• Close to 4 out of 10 people (39%) who traveled abroad the last 12 months indicate that they received pricing information via SMS from the operator.

Internet and access to broadband/mobile broadband

• 9 out of 10 people between 16 and 75 years of age use the Internet. Almost everyone (92%) between 16 and 20 years of age use the Internet every day.
• 91% have Internet access at home, which is 2 percentages higher compared to last year, and an increase of 22 percentages since 2002.
• Even in the private Internet access market TeliaSonera is the largest operator with a market share of 38%, followed by ComHem (13%) and Bredbandsbolaget (11%).
• 63% is overall satisfied with their current Internet provider. 69% of TeliaSoneras customers are overall satisfied with their operator. Bredbandsbolaget’s market share has decreased, from 72% in 2009 to 62% in this year’s survey. Glocalnet’s share is now at 56% compared to 63% in 2009. 
• 4% state that they have changed Internet provider in the last six months, a share that is on the same level as last year. As with fixed telephony and mobile telephony, the biggest reason to change Internet operator is to get a lower price on the subscription. In this year’s survey almost half of the respondents (46%) indicate this as the reason for changing.
• Broadband is still the most common way to be connected to the Internet in Sweden (79%). The most common broadband option is ADSL/VDSL (38%), a share that is unchanged compared to last year.
• A large share of the respondents (31%) state that they do not know if they can choose between different operators. In 2009 this share was 32%. In this year’s survey 34% of those with ADSL/VDSL as their form of connection and 19% of those with LAN/Fiber answer that they do not know regarding the choice of different operators.
• 15% say they are using mobile broadband as their main form of connection, which is an increase of 4 percentages compared to 2009. 29% are using mobile broadband, either as a main form of connection or as a supplement (last year this share was 21%).
• 7 out of 10 respondents state that they most often or always feel secure when they surf the Internet with the help of a fixed connection at home. 7% indicate that they do not feel safe when they are surfing the Internet using Surfzones. 
• The evaluation of mobile broadband among the users shows similar results as last year. Almost half of the respondents agree that their mobile broadband works well from home (53%). 16% cannot say whether they have the connection speed they pay for and 17% cannot say if it works well outside the home. 34% are experiencing limitations in transmission speed (34%).
• 21% of the households paying for their own Internet subscriptions are willing to switch from fixed broadband to only use mobile broadband at home. 11% has already changed. The most common reason for not changing is that the household wants to keep the fixed broadband.
• The use of different services in the computer and mobile phone is increasing compared to 2009.

TV

• 9 out of 10 have access to television in their permanent housing. The share that has free television has increased, from 17% to 26% in 2010. Among these 26%, 12% has free television and not any other subscriptions. Among the private subscriptions it is mainly Boxer (23%) and ComHem (21%) that delivers TV-broadcasts. Boxer has the same market share as 2009, while Comhem has decreased their share with 4 percentages compared to last year.
• 29% have access to television in their second residence (which can be for example a summer house). 59% have free television, compared with 19% in 2006. The second most common option is to receive TV-broadcasts from Boxer in the second housing. In 2006 47% stated that they received broadcasting from Boxer to their other residence. In 2010 this share had decreased to 28%.