Price of mobile services halved in last ten years
MONTHLY mobile phone bills have fallen by over 65 per cent over the past ten years to an average of £12.87 in 2012.
In 2003 the average monthly spend was £39.65, but while mobile penetration has skyrocketed to over 90 per cent of households – with smartphones accounting for 69 per cent of mobiles – the cost of mobiles has plummeted, according to a report celebrating the Ofcom’s tenth anniversary.
“The price of a typical bundle of mobile services has more than halved. While prices have fallen, use has increased significantly. The volume of voice calls via mobile has more than doubled in the past ten years. The volume of SMS (texts) has increased from 24bn to over 170bn,” Ofcom said in its cost and value of communications services in the UK report.
“Mobile phones are now embedded in the daily lives of nearly all UK consumers.”
Meanwhile fixed telephone lines are used in only 84 per cent of households as consumers increasingly turn to mobile for their telecoms needs.
Broadband is now bought by 72 per cent of the nation as the average monthly price for broadband dropped from £57.03 in 2000 to £16.38 in 2012. The cost of downloading data over broadband fell by a third between 2011 and 2012.