Eighty-three percent of South African smartphone users connect to the Internet daily, while only 30% of PC users do so. And smartphone use is driving adoption of mobile broadband, with 87% of smartphone users connecting to the Internet using mobile broadband networks.

These are two of the key findings in Ericsson’s new “Internet Goes Mobile” report, published on Wednesday and which focuses on consumer behaviour online.

Ericsson South Africa MD Magnus Mchunguzi says the company has been studying consumer behaviour online for the past 20 years. The survey was conducted by Ericsson Consumer Lab, which interviews more than 100 000 people around the world each year.

The report finds that South Africans want to be connected irrespective of where they are. They want a good signal at all times and if they don’t get a good connection from a mobile network, they will switch to Wi-Fi.

Other key findings are that 47% of Internet users would like to have fully connected homes and 42% are interested in owning a connected car.

Of those who use both mobile broadband and Wi-Fi connections, 55% switch between them in pursuit of better speed, reliability and coverage.

Most customers also want to upgrade their mobile connection, with 42% of 2G customers wanting to upgrade to 3G or 4G and 22% of 3G users want to change to 4G.

Top activities online include messaging, listening to music, browsing and social networking.

Ninety-seven percent of consumers engage in messaging when indoors and about 44% do the same when outdoors.

Satisfaction with mobile operators varies, with users in metropolitan areas more satisfied across the different parameters of operator services than those in non-metro areas.

This may be the result of operators paying more attention to consumers in metropolitan areas. Reliability of the connection, the range of price plans and transparency were important factors listed by consumers. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media