Nearly eight months after it first opened its doors for business in late December 2003 UK super regulator Ofcom has published 'The Communications Market 2004' report on national trends in telecoms, radio and television usage. Among some fascinating, and some less fascinating statistics, Ofcom found that UK consumers were spending more time on line, on air, listening to the radio and watching television. In detail, between 1999 and 2003:

• the time spent online increased eight-fold (an average of 2 hours a week on dial-up in 1999 to a reported 16 hours a week in broadband households in mid-2004);
• time spent on mobile phone calls almost tripled (average of 10 minutes a week to 27 minutes);
• text messages increased fifteen-fold (average of 1 a week to 15 a week);
• radio listening increased by 6% (41.2 hours per household per week to 43.5 hours);
• and television viewing increased by 2% (25.6 hours per household per week to 26.1 hours).

Which tends to beg the question: what are UK consumers now doing less of? This may be of particular interest since as usage rises, encouraged in part by falling prices, Ofcom says that UK consumers are also committing more of their household spending to communications services. Again in detail:

• residential customer spending on fixed, mobile and internet services increased by £1.3bn in 2003;
• in real terms, consumers now allocate 4% of household spending to media and communications services, up from 2.9% in 1999;
• and average spending per household on television rose from £2.68 per week in 1999 to £4.36 per week in 2003.

Some other possible conversation starters in the report are:

• for the first time ever in the UK, the total amount of revenue raised by the television industry through subscription has exceeded the total amount of revenue raised from advertising;
• in the telecoms industry, total consumer spending on mobile services (voice and text) has exceeded total consumer spending on fixed-line phone calls for the first time;
• 54% of British people listen to radio every day;
• there are now almost 50,000 new broadband subscribers every week (DSL and cable), up from around 40,000 additions a week in late 2003, and Ofcom estimates that the 5mn broadband subscriber milestone will be passed in mid-September 2004;
• 86% of UK households now have at least one mobile phone, and 21% of consumers now regard their mobile phone as their main device for making and receiving calls (up from 17% in 2002);
• and BT's fixed-line business now accounts for just over 40% of all voice calls made in the UK once mobile phones and other fixed-line providers are taken into account.

Ofcom does not say if these findings mean that the UK is acquiring a better informed, more savvy, and less insular population.

The regulator's next national telecoms report will be published in May 2005, and will be supplemented by quarterly updates, in October, January and August each year.
John Williamson