Consumer interest in more Wi-Fi services from mobile operators

MILPITAS, USA: Seventy eight percent of people in the US who own smartphones with Wi-Fi capabilities would be interested in an application that would use Wi-Fi to deliver ‘five bars’ of coverage at home or in the office, according to a MarketTools Zoomerang survey of 330 smartphone owners.

The survey also showed 88 percent would be interested in a service from their mobile operator that would give discounted calling when the phone was connected to Wi-Fi.

Additional highlights from the online survey conducted April 2010, include:

* 43 percent of people who own smartphones with Wi-Fi capabilities use the Wi-Fi every day.
* 45 percent of those people use Wi-Fi because it provides easy access to the Internet, and 43 percent use it because it is faster than the cellular network.
* 24 percent say Wi-Fi on their smartphones is annoying because it only works in some locations, reflecting a desire to use Wi-Fi more broadly.
* 30 percent of respondents own a Research in Motion (RIM) smartphone; 27 percent own an Apple iPhone.
* 48 percent use AT&T as their mobile operator; 11 percent are T-Mobile customers.

“Consumers in the US are clearly interested in taking more advantage of the Wi-Fi on their smartphones in order to improve mobile service and save them money,” said Mark Powell, vice president and general manager of Kineto’s Client Business Unit. “Mobile operators have distinct market opportunities to reduce churn, improve service quality and keep customers satisfied by enhancing their use of Wi-Fi.”

To address subscriber demand and combat its data crunch, AT&T recently announced that it has launched a Wi-Fi hotzone in New York City’s Times Square offering free access to its smartphone customers. The goal of this pilot deployment is to explore the use of Wi-Fi in areas with high volumes of 3G traffic and mobile data usage.

In the first quarter of 2010, AT&T reported that 69 percent of the company’s Wi-Fi connections were made from smartphones and integrated devices, up from 35 percent in the first quarter of 2009.