The Consumer Experience 2011

This is Ofcom's sixth annual report on the consumer experience of telecoms, the internet and digital broadcasting markets. It discusses the results of our research programme, which measured how well consumers have fared over the past year in their use of these services.

The research report is aimed at measuring how well consumers are faring in respect of:

- consumer access and take-up - the availability and take-up of communications services (including non-ownership, both voluntary and involuntary);

- consumer choices, value and range - trends in prices of communications services, consumers' use of suppliers, and their levels of satisfaction;

- consumer empowerment - the level of participation in communications markets in terms of switching and shopping around, and use of consumer information; and

- consumer protection and concerns - complaints, concerns and awareness of complaint procedures.

This report has been published alongside the Consumer Experience policy evaluation, which considers the key findings and trends emerging from the research and uses these to assess the impact of Ofcom's policy work and activities.

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Take-up levels of communications services have remained fairly stable:

- Fixed voice ownership has stabilised at 84%, and is highest among older consumers, higher socio-economic groups and consumers living in a rural location. Older consumers and those in socio-economic group DE are most likely to purchase fixed voice services as a single service.

- While overall mobile ownership remains stable (91%), there has been an upward trend in take-up of mobiles among older consumers. The shift towards full contracts, away from pre-pay, continues, and this trend is now consistent across all but the oldest age groups. While growth in contract packages is highest among the AB socio-economic group, all social groups have seen a notable rise over the past year a third of those in the DE group are now on a mobile contract. In addition, mobile contracts are becoming longer, with more than two-thirds of new contract connections in Q1 2011 being for 24 months (vs. 50% in Q1 2010).

- The growth in the take-up of smartphones (38% of mobile owners) is likely to have played a role in the rise of pay-monthly and longer contracts, as users repay much of the cost of an expensive handset over a number of months, rather than upfront. In Q2 2011 83% of adults with a smartphone were on a monthly contract.

- Three-quarters of households now have access to at least one internet connection this includes use of smartphones. Fixed broadband-only remains most popular (59%). Mobile broadband-only (excluding smartphones) stands at 8%, with a further 9% using this in addition to fixed broadband. Socio-economic group AB is driving use of mobile broadband as an additional method of connection (15%).  Laptops are driving growth in home internet devices, with homes more likely to own a laptop (59%) than a desktop PC (44%).

- Use of the internet anywhere has continued to rise steadily, with 80% of adults accessing the internet either at home or elsewhere. This increase is largely driven by older consumers.

- The use of VoIP services has doubled since 2008 and stands at just over a fifth of households. 

- The proportion of adults receiving pay-TV has increased from 54% in 2009 to 58% in 2011. Pay-TV is more popular among younger households; DE households and those in rural areas are less likely than average to have pay-TV services.

- Use of bundling remains unchanged. Around half of all adults purchase some of their services within a bundle.  Demographics of those choosing to purchase services on a standalone basis vary by market older consumers tend to purchase fixed voice services on their own, younger consumers tend to purchase fixed broadband as a standalone product and those in rural areas are most likely to purchase pay-TV on its own.

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Overall levels of consumer satisfaction with communications services remain high.

Satisfaction is lowest among fixed broadband customers who do not purchase as part of a discounted bundle (81% satisfaction).

Satisfaction with fixed broadband speeds remains consistent with previous years (80%). Satisfaction with the speed of mobile broadband service has risen since 2009, up from 70% to 80%. This may be a result of improvements in the quality of service delivered to consumers, but may also reflect more realistic expectations of the levels of speed the service can deliver.

Satisfaction levels in relation to reliability of service are stable, with the standalone fixed broadband market reporting the lowest level of satisfaction (81%).

Household spend on communications services continues to decline, despite increased stated use of TV, internet and mobiles.

Analysis of tariffs from the largest operators indicates that, overall, prices of communications services have increased over the past year. However, there is little evidence that the average cost to customers is increasing, and this also comes in the context of enhanced service offerings and increasing overall inflation.

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Switching levels have remained stable in the standalone fixed-line (6%) and standalone pay-tv (2%) markets.  Pay-TV remains the market with the highest level of inactivity (89%)

Yearly switching levels in the standalone mobile market have been declining over recent years (currently at 9%), coinciding with the rise in take-up of longer contracts. The proportion who have switched mobile provider the last two years stands at 18%.

Switching standalone broadband provider has declined over the past 12 months to 4%.  However, total switching in the broadband market (including those switching this element in a bundle) stands at 7%. This is lower than reported in 2007-08 (10%-9%) but comparable with total switching in the fixed-line market. 15% of standalone broadband switchers said it had been difficult to switch provider.

Switching in the bundled market is broadly comparable to switching levels in the mobile market (10%). There were no significant differences in switching levels according to type of bundle. Nearly a quarter (23%) of consumers who had switched a bundled service said they found it difficult, making this the market with the highest level of stated difficulty in switching. This may be because most switchers have to manage multiple processes at the same time.

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Ofcom continues to see improvement in areas of consumer complaints.

Telecoms remains the most complained-about sector, driven by complaints about silent calls. But research data indicate that the proportion of consumers receiving these calls is declining, which suggests that the continuing high level of complaints is perhaps due to an increased awareness of the ability to complain as opposed to an increase in incidence.

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