Ofcom has published the results from a new survey that is intended to help monitor how well the UK mobile market is functioning and whether it continues to deliver good outcomes. For example, the work reveals that unlimited data (broadband) tariffs accounted for 13% of mobile plans in 2023 (up from 5% in 2019), but plans with smaller allowances are now less common.
The survey – ‘Monitoring Consumer Outcomes in the Mobile Sector‘ – similarly noted that consumers typically used only a small share of their mobile data allowance, and 67% of customers did not use their full monthly data allowance at any point during their contract or PAYG tariff.
Younger mobile customers also tended to choose tariffs with higher allowances, while older customers typically chose tariffs with lower allowances. Almost a quarter of customers in the 16-24 and 25-34 age groups, for instance, held tariffs with an unlimited data allowance. These customers were also more likely to purchase contracts with higher limited data allowances (>100 GB and 30-100 GB) compared to older customers.
By contrast, less than 10% of customers in the 65-74 and 75+ age group held unlimited tariffs and more than half of customers who are 75+ held a tariff with a data allowance of less than 3GB (GigaBytes). But for the median (average) consumer, data allowances increased from 4GB in 2019 to 12GB in June 2023, which is a threefold increase.
Ofcom also analysed mobile data usage. The median data usage more than doubled from about 1GB in 2019 to about 2.7GB in June 2023. The 75th percentile showed a similar increase from around 3.5GB to about 8.7 GB during the same period.
Elsewhere, the average monthly spend gradually declined between 2019 and 2021, by around £2 (or 7%) (in nominal terms). But after that period the analysis shows prices rising in early 2022 and early 2023 when monthly spend rose by around 5% and 7%, respectively. “These increases were most likely due to the high inflationary environment resulting in high in-contract price rises but also potentially due to higher prices for new tariffs,” said Ofcom’s report.
The full report covers a variety of different areas around consumer choice of package, data usage and pricing. The report is in a format that makes it difficult to summarise and put into a simpler context, but hopefully the above summary offers some insights.