Glued to our phones, but no one is calling

A QUARTER of mobile phone users make less than five standard calls a month, while 6 per cent make none at all, latest Ofcom figures have revealed.

Of those who did make calls, 60 per cent ended their conversation in less than 90 seconds, according to the regulator’s Mobile Matters report.

The study of how around 150,000 people used their Android phone between January 1 and March 31 shows that the number of minutes spent on mobile calls has continued its steady climb from 132.1billion in 2012 to 148.6billion in 2017 – a 12 per cent rise.

During the same period, the average amount of mobile data used each month soared from 0.2GB (gigabytes) to 1.9GB, an 850 per cent increase.

However, previous research by Ofcom has also found that younger people find making calls daunting and prefer to use messaging services. The study revealed that people in Liverpool spend more time talking on their mobile than those in other major cities at almost seven minutes for an average call – more than 40 per cent longer than Londoners. Citizens of Bradford held the shortest conversations.

The research, which assists Ofcom to understand mobile users’ needs, shows that users spend most of their time online connected to Wi-fi (69 per cent), rather than using 3G or 4G. This helps explain why 60 per cent of mobile users use less than 1GB of mobile data a month, and only 10 per cent use 5GB or more.

When people are using their mobile data, they are mainly connected to 4G (82 per cent), and when they are in an area where a 4G network is available they are able to get online when they attempt to 98.8 per cent of the time.

Mobile data use peaks between 5pm and 6pm, when rush-hour commuters tend to catch up with news and social media, the study found. Last year Ofcom revealed that Britons check their phones every 12 minutes.

The report, A Decade of Digital Dependency, found that 40 per cent of adults look at their phone within five minutes of waking up, rising to 65 per cent for those aged under 35.

The younger generation is the most addicted.

Those aged 15 to 24 on average spend four hours a day on the phone compared with two hours 49 minutes for all adults.