ericsson consumerlab: voice and internet vital to city life
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City 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. Good quality voice and internet connections are vital to city life. For more from the ConsumerLab: http://www.ericsson.com/thinkingahead/consumerlabTRANSCRIPT
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
Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Internet users aged 15-69
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
Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Smartphone users
69676564626056
49
4136
70
5753
6155
505245
4235
31
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Home
City c
entre
In th
e st
reet
s- w
alking
Wor
k/sc
hool
Resta
uran
ts/c
afes
Parks
/bea
ches
Shopping
mall
Loca
l bus
es
Sport/m
usic
even
t
Loca
l tra
ins
Subway
VoiceData
12% pointsdifference
12% pointsdifference
14% pointsdifference
%
Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Internet users aged 15-69
Graph 5 - Satisfaction with Voice coverage and internet connection in four different places
Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Smartphone users
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
In the street walking
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
In the street walking
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
In the street walking
Work
Park/beaches
City center
Restaurants
Shopping mall
Local buses
Sport/music event
Local train
Subway
76
77
Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Internet users aged 15-69
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
Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Smartphone users
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
Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Internet users aged 15-69
Figure 6: What we do when we are out and about (smartphone users)
Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Internet users aged 15-69
Figure 7: What you do while commuting (smartphone users)Graph 6 - Activities while commuting (Smartphone users)
Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab Analytical platform 2012Base: Smartphone users
0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
100%
Liste
n to
music
Browse
the I
ntern
et
Check
per
sona
l mail
s
Send
SMS
Mak
e pe
rson
al ca
lls
Use so
cial n
etwor
ks
Check
work
s
Read b
ooks/
newsp
aper
/mag
azin
es
Mak
e wor
k ca
lls
Other
wor
k ac
tivitie
s
Play g
ames
Wat
ch V
ideo
clips/
TV
Check
cha
nges
in ti
me
tables
Check
cha
nges
in tr
affic
Organ
ize fa
mily
act
ivitie
s
Use G
PS/Onlin
e map
s
Mak
e pu
rcha
ses
onlin
e
Very seldomNever
Almost every day
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© 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.