Pew Catalogs Mobile Phone Frustrations: Spam, Telemarketing, Slow Download Speeds

In an April survey of just under 2,000 US adults the Pew Internet & American Life Project asked about problems and frustrations with mobile phone service and experiences. The problems explored in the survey included dropped calls, telemarketing, SMS spam and slow downloads.

Pew found that 68 percent of mobile phone owners “receive unwanted sales or marketing calls . . . And 25 percent of cell owners encounter this problem at least a few times a week or more frequently.” This problem will only grow over time as more people abandon landlines and use their mobile phones as their primary or exclusive phone number.

According to the US Center for Disease Control, nearly 50 percent of US households are mobile only (31.6 percent) or use a mobile number as the primary phone (16.4 percent). These data were compiled in 1H 2011 so the numbers are probably even higher now.

Pew also found that 69 percent of mobile phone owners who text get SMS spam; 25 percent at least weekly.

Fifty five percent of all mobile phone owners (including non-smartphone owners) go online according to Pew. More than three-fourths (75 percent) of that group reported frustration with slow download speeds, with 46 percent saying its occurs “weekly or more frequently.”

Interestingly conventional cellphone owners experienced all these problems on a less frequent basis than smartphone owners.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.