Mobile Internet Necessity, Not Luxury

Like the cell phones that preceded them, mobile data services--in particular, mobile Internet--are becoming less a luxury and more a necessity among US consumers. And the expanded use of those services (also including mobile email, multimedia messaging and photo uploading) could explode in the next two years. According to a survey by Nielsen Company on behalf of Tellabs, 71% of U.S. consumers plan to use some sort of mobile data service daily (the company did not have current daily usage information). Among current mobile Internet users, 55% planned to increase their usage of mobile data services in the next two years, and 48% planned to increase their use over the next year. Among non-users, 29% planned to start during that same period. "The mobile platform is becoming more and more a part of people's lives," said Jeff Herrmann, vice president of mobile media for Nielsen. "The primary use of these services is communication and convenience."