Two Reports on Mobile Data Usage

Antone Gonsalves writes two separate articles on reports about mobile data usage. The first at InformationWeek cites findings from Telephia that "subscribers who bought a data package paid on average nearly 5 percent more in the second quarter to $7.86 a month from $7.51 a month in the first quarter."

Of the top five U.S. carriers only about 20 percent of customers are subscribing to data services with the penetration rate highest "among young adults between 18 and 24, with 45 percent subscribing to data packages. Penetration numbers decreased as people got older. For people from 25 to 36 the rate was 32 percent; 37 to 55, 21 percent; and 56 and older, 12 percent."

Tamara Gaffney at Telephia said, "With penetration among young people being so high, it indicates there's a lot of demand for data. This speaks well for the future."

The other article at Mobile Pipeline reports that JupiterResearch predicts mobile users might use local search but probably won't pay for it. The firm found that only "1 in 5 consumers are willing to pay for directory service on their cellular phones and only 7 percent would pay for local search."

JupiterResearch analyst Julie Ask said, "The adoption of these data services and technologies on the phone isn't that high yet, and usage isn't that intense. It's just going to be hard to make money over the next few years."

On the topic of carriers trying to increase ARPU via their data networks, Ask commented, "That's the million-dollar question. They're hoping data will fill the gap, but it hasn't yet."