4. Mobile Use

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Mobile Use. Source: ComReg trends survey Series, 2006

The Irish mobile market continues to grow – like house prices. Total subscribers number some 4.27 million, that’s a 10.6% annual increase. Ireland’s penetration level of 103% is remarkable, but it is still shy of some of our European neighbours such as Luxembourg and Sweden.

More Irish people are using mobile devices to access the Web. Among the 15 to 34-year-olds, heavy spenders on technology gadgets, 5% say they own a Blackberry. This represents a jump of 67% on the previous year.

Among children, an interesting trend emerges from a recent Eurobarometer study of mobile and internet use among the under-17s across all 25 EU states. Just 42% of Irish children use the Internet and 38% own a mobile phone, the seventh lowest levels in Europe.

Eurobarometer notes that mobile ownership is not widespread amongst the under-12s and that parents report greater Internet usage once their children enter their teenage years.

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