Up to 71% of consumers in the US and 41% in parts of Western Europe anticipate that they will use the mobile internet and other mobile data services on a daily basis over the next two years - with a significant ramp-up in the next 12 months, according to a survey from Tellabs, writes MarketingCharts.

The survey of more than 50,000 European and US mobile users  - conducted by The Nielsen Company during the current recession - shows that increasing convenience, among other factors, will spur growth in the mobile internet despite the economic downturn.

At the same time, the study found that mobile users continue to raise concerns about cost, speed and quality of service.

Both Current and Non-Users Will Increase Use

The research was conducted in the US and five of the largest Western European countries, and analyzed 10 mobile data services. It reveals that nearly 60% of the approximately 200 million mobile data users in those countries expect to increase use in the next two years.

More significantly, "more than a quarter of the millions of consumers who do not use mobile data services today intend to start using them shortly," said Jesse Goranson, SVP of Mobile Media, The Nielsen Company.

Top Five Services

In the surveyed countries, mobile operators can expect more network traffic from consumers for services such as mobile internet, e-mail, photo uploading and multimedia messaging (MMS), the survey found.

The detailed breakdown of the top five services that non-users intend to start using shows that anticipated demand is not evenly split between the US and Europe. Key differences:

• US consumers will drive more new mobile internet use: About half of US non-users of the mobile Internet intend to use it in the next two years, compared with a third of non-users in Europe.
• In the European countries close to 40% of non-users expect to start using MMS. Italy tends to be the leading adopter across all services, while Germany shows comparatively low adoption rates.
• A "work-oriented"  lifestyle is a big factor in boosting use of select mobile data services in the US, while entertainment was more of a driving factor for use in France, Germany and Spain, but was not as relevant in the US.

Issues and Opportunities for Operators

The survey also presented a number of issues that mobile operators need to address, as well as opportunities they can exploit. The biggest issues, Tellabs said, are cost, speed, quality and reliability. Tellabs added that operators that address these challenges early will take advantage of the increasing demand, while enhancing margins.

The company also noted that the sustained increase in high-bandwidth applications and corresponding data traffic will create significant challenges for mobile operators looking to maintain profitability. Since most of the growth is expected within the next 12 months, this issue demands immediate attention.

"In Tellabs[' experience, timely, strategic changes to mobile operators' networks will enable them to reduce costs, increase speed of services and improve quality and reliability," said Pat Dolan VP of EMEA for Tellabs.

Convenience Key to Growth

The top driver of the trend toward increased mobile internet and data usage is consumers' expectations of how they will add convenience and improve their lifestyle, and how this aligns with current capabilities of the mobile platform, Tellabs said.  Making consumers' lives easier is the most important factor driving increased use in the US.

"Mobile data services are not a luxury, but a necessity that consumers plan to purchase despite economic conditions," said Dolan. "By planning urgent and strategic network upgrades, operators can quickly and cost-efficiently address users’ issues and meet increasing demands on networks."