Wireless Youth: Going Wireless, Wireless Youth Survey Results

SUMMARY

In early fall, 2003, In-Stat/MDR conducted a survey of parents of children and young adults aged 10 to 18, as well as young adults aged 18 to 25, to determine their attitudes towards wireless services and how they use them. The results of this survey of 988 parents and 98 young adults show that wireless phones are an integral part of young people in the United States today.
The survey measured youth use of wireless by which carrier they use, how often they use their wireless services, whether they use wireless data, how often they use wireless data, what types of wireless data services they use, and their attitudes towards location-based services, including willingness to pay for them.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Executive Summary
• About the Panel
• Methodology For Collecting Panel Data
• Introduction
  • Carrier Strategies for Penetrating the Youth Market
    • The Family Plan
    • Traditional Prepaid
    • MVNO Prepaid
      • Virgin Mobile USA
      • Boost Mobile
• Survey Results for Parents of Wireless Youth
• Survey Results for 18 to 25 Year Olds
• Conclusions

List of Figures

• Figure 1. Average age of parent's child, that has a mobile phone
• Figure 2. Percentage of youth mobile phone service paid for by parents and youth
• Figure 3. How mobile phone service is paid for
• Figure 4. On average, how many minutes each month does your child use on his or her mobile phone?
• Figure 5. Which wireless telephone company provides the service for your child's phone?
• Figure 6. Does your child use the mobile phone for voice services only or for data services (for example, short text messaging) as well?
• Figure 7. Which, if any, of the following types of data does your child access with his or her mobile phone?
• Figure 8. How interested would you be in a mobile phone location service that would allow you to find out the location of your child's phone (and child)?
• Figure 9. How would you want to pay for a location-based service?
• Figure 10. Age range of respondents to young adult survey
• Figure 11. Who pays for your mobile phone service?
• Figure 12. Is your mobile phone service prepaid?
• Figure 13. On average, about how many minutes per month do you use your wireless phone?
• Figure 14. Which wireless telephone company provides the service for your wireless phone?
• Figure 15. Do you use the phone for voice services only, or for data services (for example, short text messaging) as well?
• Figure 16. Which, if any, of the following types of data do you access with your mobile phone? (please check all that apply)
• Figure 17. On average, what percent of your total monthly minutes usage does data usage represent?
• Figure 18. How interested would you be in a mobile phone location service that would allow your friends to find out your location, or would allow you to track the location of your friends?
• Figure 19. In which, if any, of the following ways would you be willing to pay for a mobile phone location service?