Ericsson ConsumerLab: Voice and Internet Vital to City Life

voice and internet vital to city lifeCONSUMERLABwww.ericsson.com/consumerlab

Good quality voice and internet connections vital to city lifeCity dwellers around the world are clear about one thing: having a good mobile coverage is now ranked among the top five factors in a city. The ability to use your smartphone seamlessly is one of the most important aspects when it comes to being happy living in a city. This article covers how voice and internet satisfaction differs in various places – and not just between places, but also in the same place.

Cities bring more opportunities A majority of citizens believe that people who live in small towns are happier than those living in big cities. Nevertheless, many people choose to live in big cities. Things like leisure activities, job opportunities, meeting new people and having a sense of freedom are important aspects in people’s lives, and these outweigh the disad-vantages of living in a city. Most feel they have possibili-ties in the city that they would not have anywhere else.

In the Ericsson ConsumerLab insights from 2012, we can see there are different levels of satisfaction in the cities measured. The levels range between 40 to 65 percent, with people in Singapore, San Francisco, New York, Shanghai, Berlin, London and Sydney among

the most satisfied, and those in Mexico City, Lima, Jakarta, Beijing and Buenos Aires the least satisfied of the cities in the study (Figure 1).

Mobile coverage is now seen as important as clean waterShopping, food markets, restaurants, cafés, pubs and entertainment are always top of the list when people talk about their city. These amenities are an important reason why people chose to live in a city in the first place, and these are the ones people are most satis-fied with. Interestingly, mobile phone coverage is now in fourth place, closely followed by water distribution, both necessary utilities that have to be in place for a good life (Figure 2).

Graph 1 - Satisfaction level in each city

Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: ALL

SanFrancisco

(65%)

New York(63%)

MexicoCity

(44%)

Lima(38%)

BuenosAires(39%)

London(61%)

Madrid(52%)

Paris(57%)

Berlin(59%)

Rome(50%)

Istanbul(58%)

Beijing(45%)

Shanghai(58%)

Tokyo(60%)

Singapore(57%)

Jakarta(45%)

Sydney(59%)

Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Internet users aged 15-69

Figure 1: Overall satisfaction with life in each city

Areas people are most dissatisfied with are practicali-ties, such as parking, the traffic situation and child care, but also the way the authorities communicate, and environmental issues such as air quality.

What needs to be done to make people more satisfied varies in the different cities, but improving safety and having a better city plan are among the top five factors in most cities, together with public transport, the traffic situation and work opportunities.

Mobile coverage and internet access, the new utilitiesThese days, having high-quality mobile coverage and internet access are as important as having clean water and electricity. It is therefore vital to know how satisfied people are with their voice coverage and internet connections to make sure they are meeting their expectations.

Satisfaction differs depending on the location in the cityIn general, people in big cities spend half of their time at home, one quarter of it at work or school and the rest in any other location (Figure 3). It is therefore essential that your communication solution works at home. On average, 70 percent of all citizens are satis-fied with their voice and internet connection at home. The same applies at work, where 60 percent are satis-fied. How ever, it is a different story for other places, where people have less influence on the quality of the connection.

When people move outside their home and work envi-ronments, their satisfaction level drops for both voice and internet connections. The level of satisfaction is less in parks, on beaches, at shopping malls, sports or music events, and when using different means of transportation. The bottom score in all cities is in the subway.

Voice wins over internet connectionBut there is another dimension to this. In all places except for the home, the internet connection is falling behind voice. The biggest difference we find is when people are walking on the streets, where there is a 14 percent unit difference between satisfaction levels for voice and internet connections. Places such as city centers, parks, beaches and local buses are close behind with a difference of 12 percent units.

The ability to find parking

Child care Road traffic situation/street system

Communication with city authorities

Air quality

Waterdistribution

Mobile network coverage

Availability of entertainment facilities

Availability of restaurants, cafés, pubs, etc.

Availability of shopping malls, food markets, etc.

TOP 5

BOTTOM 5Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Internet users aged 15-69

Figure 2: What city dwellers are most/least satisfied with

17%

65%

Graph 3 - Places people visit in the city

Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Smartphone users

56%

31%

27%

4%

Sport events

13% 68% 19%Music events/Concerts

19% 72% 9%Movies/Theatres

30% 63% 6%Parks, beaches

39% 55% 6%Restaurants,bars, pubs, cafés

42% 54% 4%Shopping malls

Grocery stores

At least weekly Less often Never


Figure 3: Places people visit in the city weekly (smartphone users)

Lowest satisfaction for transportationThe lowest satisfaction level for all cities is transporta-tion, with the subway coming bottom for every city with a satisfaction level of just 36 percent for voice and 31 percent for internet. In addition, 25 to 50 percent say they are dissatisfied – the highest dissatisfaction level of all – and both voice and internet connections are perceived as being equally bad (Figure 4).

In some cities, people are more dissatisfied than in others. Mexico City, Tokyo, London, Paris and New York stand out here, with as many as 50-60 percent who are dissatisfied with the voice and internet connections on the subway. Voice and internet satisfaction varies in different citiesIt is clear that people are more satisfied with voice coverage than with the internet connection in all areas of a city, but the satisfaction level varies in different cities (Figure 5).

The satisfaction level is higher in San Francisco, Madrid and Istanbul than in Buenos Aires. But the differences in satisfaction between voice and the internet are much the same in all cities with 15-20 percent of the people less satisfied with the internet in parks, on beaches, in the city center and on the street. The exception is San Francisco, which has a mature market for both voice and internet connection, with hardly any differences in satisfaction between the two.

Low score for all transportation: slightly better for buses and trainsEven though transportation comes bottom regarding satisfaction levels for all cities, there seems to be a difference between the subway and local buses and trains. Voice connections are perceived to work better when traveling on the local bus or train than in the subway, where voice and internet connections are equally bad. Having good voice coverage and internet connection is vital for most people when traveling to work; the ability to e-mail or to have personal contact with friends and family by calling them or by text messaging and using social media is something people take for granted nowadays (Figure 7).

Graph 4 - Satisfaction with Voice coverage and internet connection in different places


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49

4136

70

5753

6155

505245

4235

31

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

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City c

entre

In th

e st

reet

s- w

alking

Wor

k/sc

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/bea

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Shopping

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Subway

VoiceData

12% pointsdifference



%


Graph 5 - Satisfaction with Voice coverage and internet connection in four different places


Voice (%)

Data (%)

Madrid

San Francisco Istanbul

72

71

66

69

63

62

61

60

46

42

25

56

53

70

56

47

50

44

51

39

32

23

City center

In the street walking

Home

Work

Park/beaches

Restaurants

Local bus

City shopping mall

Sport/music event

Local train

Subway

86

82

80

80

78

76

71

65

63

39

73

60

70

57

68

75

69

53

53

45

34

City center


Restaurants

Park/beaches

City shopping mall

Home

Work

Local bus

Sport/music event

Local train

Subway

Buenos Aires

56

53

53

51

50

48

42

40

35

24

64

41

35

46

36

43

40

29

26

20

Home

City center


Restaurants

Park/beaches

Work

City shopping mall

Local bus

Sport/music event

Local train

Subway

28

59

73

72

72

71

71

65

63

62

53

43

78

66

70

62

64

66

62

57

58

46

42

Home


Work

Park/beaches

City center

Restaurants

Shopping mall

Local buses

Sport/music event

Local train

Subway

76

77


Figure 4: Voice and internet connections in different places (smartphone users)

Figure 5: Satisfaction levels for voice and internet connections in four different cities (smartphone users)

When out and about – you want to share your experiencesOf the people interviewed in all of the cities in the study, 30 percent said they visit parks and beaches on a regular basis. Being able to visit a green area is an important aspect when living in a big city. Taken as a whole, among the factors measured, the one that shows the highest correlation to happiness with life in the city is perceived to be an abundance of clean, green parks and public spaces. When we visit parks and beaches with our friends and families, we also want to share our experience with others. This habit is prevalent in everything we do, using social media wherever we are, and especially when we are out and about (Figure 6).

Graph 7 - Activities on the Smartphone when out and about


Make personal calls

Listen to music

SMS/Chat

Browsing Internet

Personal email

Work calls

Use social networks

Play games

Read newspaper/books

Work emails

Work activities

Watch video clips

Organize family activites

69%

64

60

53

51

43

41

39

39

36

27

25

23


Figure 6: What we do when we are out and about (smartphone users)


Figure 7: What you do while commuting (smartphone users)Graph 6 - Activities while commuting (Smartphone users)


0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

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Browse

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Check

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Send

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Mak

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Use so

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Check

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Read b

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newsp

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/mag

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Very seldomNever

Almost every day

Ericsson AB

SE-126 25 Stockholm, Sweden

Telephone +46 8 719 00 00

Fax +46 8 18 40 85

www.ericsson.com

EAB-13:034069 Uen

© Ericsson AB 2013

There is great potential to increase the satisfaction level for people living in a city if voice quality and internet connections are improved, and especially in the areas where it does not work satisfactorily today.

Ericsson ConsumerLab: Voice and Internet Vital to City Life

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