Ofcom report shows that in a clamouring mobile market, the Irish talk more than anyone else

Rating: Mobile usage report reveals rapid growth of mobile market in global and national trends

Ofcom, the independent UK authority on communications, has released it’s International Communications Market report for 2007. Among the facts it reveals are a staggering global increase in mobile subscriptions, and an interesting tidbit about people from the Republic of Ireland. We not only spend more time talking on our mobiles than any other country, we also send the largest amount of texts. We average 179 minutes talking per person per month and 154 text messages per month, nearly double the figure in Britain of 81 texts.

What else do they have to say?

Expansion in the mobile market has been astounding, especially in growth economies. India, Brazil, Russia and China had over 216 million new subscriptions between them. There were 88 million in China alone, which is more in one year than the total number of subscriptions in England!

The report also covers Internet use, broadband take up and radio / TV usage. All of these markets reported marked increases over previous years, but none as fast or large as the mobile market.

Although, amusingly, the Republic of Ireland also has the largest number of Wi-Fi hot spots per person! Jayzus, we just love to stay connected.

From the report:

Ofcom is eager to remind us that this information is almost one year old: “The reference period of this report is the five years to the end of 2007. Consequently, our analysis does not fully take account of changing economic conditions over the past twelve months. Where appropriate, and possible, we have set our data against this background (for example in our UK context sections), but a full analysis of the impact of the current economic climate on the international communications market will need to await the next report.”

What we think?

I’d be shocked if the results of this report come as a surprise to anyone. The mobile market is expanding faster than most people could have anticipated, and you don’t have to wait until the next Ofcom report to know that this trend has continued this year.

And, in fairness, is anyone surprised that we Irish love to talk?