UK mobile internet usage on the up

No big surprise in that headline I guess. We’ve only seen an upward trend with mobile internet usage, but it’s nice to have the facts to hand in the latest report from the Office of National Statistics (that’s a UK government department in case you didn’t know). You can download the full press release from http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_227158.pdf

Key points:

• 17.6m mobile phone internet users in the UK which represents 45 per cent of Internet users used a mobile phone to connect to the Internet compared with 8.5m (23%) in 2009
• 6 million people accessed the Internet over their mobile phone for the first time in the previous 12 months
• The use of wireless hotspots almost doubled in the last 12 months to 4.9 million users from 0.7m in 2007
• 21 per cent of Internet users did not believe their skills were sufficient to protect their personal data
• 77 per cent of households had Internet access

Interesting to note also, that women are joining the mobile internet generation: the number of women using mobile phones to access the Internet has more than doubled, from 18 per cent of Internet users in 2009 to 39 per cent in 2011. And also there is strong usage from younger people. This is a change in pattern and I guess is down to more economical ways of accessing the mobile internet (via hotspots and better managed data pricing) as well as more usage of touchscreen phones which makes the experience more enjoyable.

I’ll leave you to read the rest about online habits. Bottom line is, everything is going up.

Hat tip @addictivemobile