1. Executive summary

A "mobile revolution" is currently under way which can be described by three different and complementary pillars, which are: (1) the increasing development of mobile equipment enabling Internet access from anywhere (such as smartphones ¹ or tablets ², among other); (2) the growing amount of high speed offers connected to mobile broadband, provided by their service providers; (3) the growing number of applications associated with mobile Internet access; and (4) the rising demand for access everywhere and at any time.

It should be noted that in July 2011, according to IDATE (2011), mobile broadband penetration per inhabitant in Portugal (36.5 per 100 inhabitants) stood above the European Union (EU27) average (34.6 per 100 inhabitants). This favourable position results from the subscription rate of USB modems (sticks), with a penetration rate of about 11.1 per 100 inhabitants in Portugal, compared with a rate of 7.5 per 100 inhabitants for the EU27.

It is important to analyze how mobile Internet users currently value mobile broadband services in order to improve the supervision and regulation of this market’s development. This analysis also includes fixed Internet access, especially concerning its impact on the use of mobile Internet.

In this context, the present study analyzes the usage patterns of mobile broadband in Portugal, in terms of access frequency, manner of usage, and type of activities developed broken down by form of access, whether by the use of USB modem or mobile phone (Smartphone type).

The study was based on a survey carried out for ICP-ANACOM by a market research company between mid-June and mid-July of 2011, applied to Portuguese residents aged 15 and over, in a representative sample of 3076 respondents.

The more important conclusions are:

• Fixed access is the access platform most used by users with only one means of Internet access. This suggests that this group of users values other factors such as speed and traffic over mobility when choosing their Internet access platform. Thus, about half of fixed Internet users only had this means of access, while in mobile accesses using a USB modem the proportion was 1/3, and in mobile phone accesses it was less than 10%.
   
• Regarding the usage of more than one Internet access platform, once again the most common is fixed access plus a type of mobile access, especially fixed access and USB modem. But only a small number of respondents have three means of Internet access. Analysys Mason (2010) says that in most Western European countries covered in that study mobile broadband is considered as a second access, complementary to fixed broadband, rather than being the primary access.
   
• Of the people who use fixed access and USB modem the use of USB modem access predominates, as expected, especially away from home. However, the activities most accessed in this manner are similar, with e-mail access, the search of information for various purposes (school, work or leisure), and online chatting being the main ones.
   
• About 18.3% of all users with USB modem acquired the service through a service package ³ and one in seven of these users usually exceed the traffic limit offered by the service provider. It was also found that about one third of the users who were offered a USB modem access do not use this service, and that the main reasons for this are not feeling the need for it (44.6%), the current access being enough (33.2%), and the traffic limit imposed in the USB modem package (13.4%).
   
• As for where the USB modem is used, 76.4% of the users that only have this type of access use it mainly or always at home, while for users who also have fixed access the usage of the USB modem under these conditions drops to 17.2%. Usage of the USB modem mainly or exclusively outside home, on the other hand, increases from 22.6% to 80.6% respectively when the user has no fixed access and has a fixed access. Opting for exclusive USB modem access solely for use outside the home could therefore be the result of overestimating the mobility that characterizes the service, even if it is not used, or due to commercial factors such as the existence of prepaid plans without the need of obligatory top-ups, which in the case of fixed accesses seem to be available only for business customers.
   
• Regarding the motives for choosing the service provider, the option "no special reason" (20.0%) was mentioned most by USB modem users, followed by the price (18.2%). In the case of mobile phone Internet access the choice of service provider mainly resulted from the user already being that operator’s voice customer (67.0%).
   
• The main reason given by users with fixed access for choosing the current service provider was the subscription to a package of services (42.2%), followed by the price (28.9%). This is the result of the growing investment of service providers in service packages, mirrored in the increasing amount of broadband offers included in packages within the overall amount of broadband offers (this share rose from 63% to 80% between 2009 and 2010).
   
• The average satisfaction with fixed Internet access proved to be greater than with mobile accesses, thus confirming the findings of ANACOM (2011c), based on the data of ECSI 2010 regarding electronic communications. Furthermore, it was found that the usage of both a fixed access and a USB modem access by users has a negative influence on their satisfaction with the USB modem access, in terms of general satisfaction, satisfaction concerning the traffic limit, and satisfaction with the cost of the service ⁴. But the usage of fixed access and mobile accesses, whether by USB modem or by mobile phone, by the same user has a positive influence on their satisfaction with the speed and the price paid for the fixed access.
   
• Analyzing the intention to change the type of access, fixed Internet seems to be more highly valued than mobile Internet, particularly where the user has a USB modem. This takes into account that: (1) among current Internet users there are more respondents who gave up the USB modem access than those who gave up fixed access ⁵; (2) the proportion of users intending to give up their current Internet access  is greater in the case of mobile accesses (12.7% in the case of USB modem access; 5.6% for mobile phone access, and 3.5% for fixed access), and (3) the intention to switch between fixed Internet access and USB modem access is much stronger among the respondents with USB modem - one third of the respondents with USB modem access, in comparison with one tenth with fixed access intends to give it up and replace it with a mobile access. It should also be noted that the respondents who are less satisfied with the service in general indicate a greater intention of giving up the current service, as expected.
   
• Although general satisfaction with the price of the current Internet access service is good, high prices were the main reason mentioned by the respondents (53.4% for mobile phone access, 42.4% for USB modem access, and 33.2% for fixed access) for considering giving up their means of Internet access.
   
• Users recognize that mobile broadband speed is slower and the price is higher than fixed broadband, but they also agree that the reliability of these two means of access is identical.
   
• Finally, based on the results of this study, it was found that, as might be expected, the usage pattern of fixed access and USB modem access is more similar than that between fixed access and mobile phone access - this is due both to the available retail offerings that are associated with each means of Internet access, and to the characteristics of the accesses themselves.