Cost of mobile data less of an issue than ever, says Ofcom
By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 7 October 2014, 10.05pm bst
6% of mobile phone consumers have experienced "bill shock" in the last twelve months, according to UK regulator Ofcom.
"Bill shock" is an industry term for an unexpectedly high bill. Radio streaming - because of the potential length of time - is a potential cause of a high bill, and one of the reasons that some proponents of broadcast radio give for FM chips inside phones.
This 6% reflects a continuing decline in bill shock over the last few years. It might be that consumers are more educated; or that roaming bills have been lowered across Europe; and it should be put against increasing audience figures for online streaming services like Radioplayer and iPlayer Radio.
One hour of listening to a typical 48kbps stream is 22MB of data. Over a month, that adds up to about 660 MB.
So, is radio streaming causing bill shock?
Out of those who'd experienced "bill shock", the third most cited reason is the use of mobile data. 12% reported the cause as being using more than their monthly data allowance. 6% said the cause was that they'd used data without actually having a data allowance at all; while 8% reported high costs while using mobiles abroad.
The reason most gave for their bills being unexpectedly higher than normal was related to telephone calls. 15% of people were surprised by the cost of non-geographical numbers, like 0870 or 0845 numbers. 13% of people were caught out by numbers not being included in their monthly call allowance, and 12% paid more because they went over their call allowance.
So, for radio, is the cost of mobile data a concern? There's no data in this research that specifically pinpoints radio; but this survey suggests that 0.72% of all UK mobile phone users have been caught out by the cost of data. While still potentially 460,000 people, 0.72% doesn't appear to point to a big issue with the cost of data for many.
The bill shock research is on the Ofcom website.