A new Telia survey of the likely future broadband habits of Swedish consumers finds that 75% of respondents would consider purchasing and downloading music legally from the Internet, and 63% would consider renting and downloading films. In the survey, Swedes were also asked how they would use a portable computer with wireless broadband - if they had the equipment at home. Some 44% said that they would read an online newspaper at the breakfast table and 37% would use the computer to check the programme listings for tv. Interestingly, 7% claimed they would read online newspapers on the toilet.

Who says British consumers, particularly men, are getting more impatient in their dealings with businesses? Cable & Wireless does. Its new survey describes a nation of ‘three-minute men', characterised by the findings that: men are twice as likely as women to stop queuing (19% of men would give up waiting in a shop after three minutes, compared to 9% of women); almost 46% of men would give up waiting online after three minutes, compared to 27% of women; and 40% men would give up waiting on the phone after three minutes, compared to 33% of women.

"There is a serious point to this research", comments Royston Hoggarth, chief executive of C&W UK. "Customers can lose patience with organisations and be gone in 180 seconds, often without that organisation even knowing there's a problem. And once they're gone, they stay gone".

Carried out by human behaviour research company Populus, the C&W survey identifies five main beefs articulated by respondents. Poor telecoms solutions have a starring role. In descending order the chief irritations are:

• automated answering services;
• telephone hold 'muzak';
• not knowing how long the wait might be;
• counter staff carrying on casual conversations while serving customers;
• and slowness of Internet connections.

JohnWilliamson