Only 36 percent of smartphone owners consider it reasonable for their mobile data service to suffer from issues such as unavailability in certain locations, extended downtime and other performance "hiccups," and 40 percent blame their network service provider as the principal cause of problems during use of an application, according to a recent survey.
The online survey of 1,000 consumers, conducted by traffic management vendor Vasona Networks, revealed that 64 percent of consumers surveyed cited "good performance all the time" as a reasonable expectation from their mobile data service provider.
"Our findings indicate that it is no longer sufficient for mobile operators to offer a good experience most of the time across most of their network. Today, if every cell isn't delivering great performance, subscribers are being let down," said John Reister, Vasona's vice president of marketing and product management.
While price is still king, with more than 55 percent of those surveyed saying service plan price is the most factor important when choosing a provider, 29 percent cited mobile Internet performance as the most important factor. The remainder indicated device choice was their primary deciding factor.
"Mobile Internet performance is becoming increasingly important for consumers and this survey indicates just how high a bar subscribers are setting for their service providers," Reister noted.
The survey also revealed that mobile Web surfing is the most performance-sensitive activity for consumers, with 56 percent of respondents claiming they are most frustrated by poor data connections that result in Web pages that are slow to load or do not load at all.
Other frustrating experiences cited by respondents include delays in opening or operating an app and videos freezing or not playing smoothly.
A separate survey from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project recently revealed that 10 percent of Americans lack high-speed broadband at home but own a smartphone. Smartphones offer "a potential source of online access to individuals who might otherwise lack the ability to go online at all from within the home, even if that access is somewhat limited in comparison," the research center said.
For more:
- see this Vasona release
Special report: Vasona Networks - network traffic management- wireless startups- Fierce 15 2013
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