Mobile phones are not quite getting there yet

Mobile phones have the potential to just about double the Internet user base in the country and take South Africans across the digital divide, but due to factors such as costs and ignorance, it is not quite happening yet. The first comprehensive survey in terms of a formal framework defining the use of Internet on cellphones found that a high percentage of cellular users are using their phone's Internet capacity without realising they were doing so.

The results of the survey, Mobile Internet in South Africa 2010, done by World Wide Worx (WWW), was the first such survey under the framework agreed upon last year between WWW and the South African Mobile Marketing Association, and found that a much lower number of users are accessing the Web via their cellphone than is generally claimed.

Although not even near its potential at the moment, the use of Internet services has exploded in South Africa.

In a radio interview with Moneyweb, WWW managing director Arthur Goldstuck said that because of the overall numbers being bandied about, the impression is created that 11 million people in the country have cellphone access to the Internet. That is more than twice the actual number.

The reality is that this number of people is accessing WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) Internet, which is the third-tier of mobile Internet access to mobile versions of brand sites, mobile versions of news sites, and the downloading of ringtones and games.

The next tier is application Internet , representing stand-alone applications such as MXit and Facebook mobile. There are in the order of 9.5 million South Africans in the age group of 16 years and older accessing application Internet.

At the level that most people perceive Internet access, which includes accessing their e-mail and browsing, there are “only” 3.36 million South African mobile users.

Out of the 60% mobile phone users who have the capacity on their phones to do so, only 21% browse the Internet. Further, only about 28% of urban cellphone users made use of mobile instant messaging (IM), despite the fact that 65% (or 4.5 million out of a potential 10.5 million) of them have the capacity to do so on their phones.

“It is quite startling to find how many have these features on their phones, but don’t use them – either out of ignorance or because of cost concerns,” said Goldstuck.

He added that “many people with these applications on their phones do not use them and do not even know how to use them.

"It is clear that the cellphone has the potential to take South Africans across the digital divide, but the phones themselves need to become more user friendly, and a vast amount of consumer education is needed."