voice and internet vital to city life CONSUMERLAB www.ericsson.com/consumerlab

voice and internet vital to city life CONSUMERLAB www.ericsson.com/consumerlab

Good quality voice and internet connections vital to city life City dwellers around the world are clear about one thing: having a good mobile coverage is now ranked among the top five factors in a city. The ability to use your smartphone seamlessly is one of the most important aspects when it comes to being happy living in a city. This article covers how voice and internet satisfaction differs in various places and not just between places, but also in the same place. Figure 1: Overall satisfaction with life in each city Graph 1 - Satisfaction level in each city San Francisco (%) New York (%) Mexico City (44%) London (61%) Madrid (52%) Berlin (59%) Paris (%) Rome (%) Istanbul (58%) Beijing (45%) Singapore (%) Shanghai (58%) Tokyo (%) Lima (38%) Buenos Aires (%) Jakarta (45%) Sydney (59%) Base: ALL Cities bring more opportunities A majority of citizens believe that people who live in small towns are happier than those living in big cities. Nevertheless, many people choose to live in big cities. Things like leisure activities, job opportunities, meeting new people and having a sense of freedom are important aspects in people s lives, and these outweigh the disadvantages of living in a city. Most feel they have possibilities in the city that they would not have anywhere else. In the Ericsson ConsumerLab insights from 2012, we can see there are different levels of satisfaction in the cities measured. The levels range between to percent, with people in Singapore, San Francisco, New York, Shanghai, Berlin, London and Sydney among the most satisfied, and those in Mexico City, Lima, Jakarta, Beijing and Buenos Aires the least satisfied of the cities in the study (Figure 1). Mobile coverage is now seen as important as clean water Shopping, food markets, restaurants, cafés, pubs and entertainment are always top of the list when people talk about their city. These amenities are an important reason why people chose to live in a city in the first place, and these are the ones people are most satisfied with. Interestingly, mobile phone coverage is now in fourth place, closely followed by water distribution, both necessary utilities that have to be in place for a good life (Figure 2).

Figure 2: What city dwellers are most/least satisfied with TOP 5 restaurants, cafés, pubs, etc. shopping malls, food markets, etc. entertainment facilities Mobile network coverage Water distribution Child care Communication with city authorities The ability to find parking Air quality Road traffic situation/street system BOTTOM 5 Areas people are most dissatisfied with are practicalities, such as parking, the traffic situation and child care, but also the way the authorities communicate, and environmental issues such as air quality. What needs to be done to make people more satisfied varies in the different cities, but improving safety and having a better city plan are among the top five factors in most cities, together with public transport, the traffic situation and work opportunities. Mobile coverage and internet access, the new utilities These days, having high-quality mobile coverage and internet access are as important as having clean water and electricity. It is therefore vital to know how satisfied people are with their voice coverage and internet connections to make sure they are meeting their expectations. Graph 3 - Places people visit in the city Figure 3: Places people visit in the city weekly (smartphone users) Satisfaction differs depending on the location in the city In general, people in big cities spend half of their time at home, one quarter of it at work or school and the rest in any other location (Figure 3). It is therefore essential that your communication solution works at home. On average, percent of all citizens are satisfied with their voice and internet connection at home. The same applies at work, where percent are satisfied. How ever, it is a different story for other places, where people have less influence on the quality of the connection. When people move outside their home and work environments, their satisfaction level drops for both voice and internet connections. The level of satisfaction is less in parks, on beaches, at shopping malls, sports or music events, and when using different means of transportation. The bottom score in all cities is in the subway. Sport events Music events/ Concerts Movies/Theatres Parks, beaches, bars, pubs, cafés Shopping malls Grocery stores At least weekly Less often Never 17% 13% % 68% 27% 19% 19% % 9% 30% % 6% % 55% 6% % 54% 4% % 31% 4% Voice wins over internet connection But there is another dimension to this. In all places except for the home, the internet connection is falling behind voice. The biggest difference we find is when people are walking on the streets, where there is a 14 percent unit difference between satisfaction levels for voice and internet connections. Places such as city centers, parks, beaches and local buses are close behind with a difference of 12 percent units.

Lowest satisfaction for transportation The lowest satisfaction level for all cities is transportation, with the subway coming bottom for every city with a satisfaction level of just percent for voice and 31 percent for internet. In addition, 25 to percent say they are dissatisfied the highest dissatisfaction level of all and both voice and internet connections are perceived as being equally bad (Figure 4). In some cities, people are more dissatisfied than in others. Mexico City, Tokyo, London, Paris and New York stand out here, with as many as - percent who are dissatisfied with the voice and internet connections on the subway. Voice and internet satisfaction varies in different cities It is clear that people are more satisfied with voice coverage than with the internet connection in all areas of a city, but the satisfaction level varies in different cities (Figure 5). The satisfaction level is higher in San Francisco, Madrid and Istanbul than in Buenos Aires. But the differences in satisfaction between voice and the internet are much the same in all cities with 15-20 percent of the people less satisfied with the internet in parks, on beaches, in the city center and on the street. The exception is San Francisco, which has a mature market for both voice and internet connection, with hardly any differences in satisfaction between the two. Graph 4 - Satisfaction with Voice coverage and internet connection in different places Figure 4: Voice and internet connections in different places (smartphone users) % 30 20 Voice Data 31 s 49 45 es 52 Shopping mall 12% points difference Low score for all transportation: slightly better for buses and trains Even though transportation comes bottom regarding satisfaction levels for all cities, there seems to be a difference between the subway and local buses and trains. Voice connections are perceived to work better when traveling on the local bus or train than in the subway, where voice and internet connections are equally bad. Having good voice coverage and internet connection is vital for most people when traveling to work; the ability to e-mail or to have personal contact with friends and family by calling them or by text messaging and using social media is something people take for granted nowadays (Figure 7). Parks/beaches 55 /cafes 61 /school 14% points 12% points difference difference 67 In the streets- walking City centre Graph 5 - Satisfaction with Voice coverage and internet connection in four different places Figure 5: Satisfaction levels for voice and internet connections in four different cities (smartphone users) Buenos Aires Madrid 20 28 29 26 24 48 59 Voice (%) Data (%) 23 25 32 47 44 61 San Francisco Istanbul Shopping mall es 58 76 78 73 34 45 73 86 82 68 78 75 77 76

When out and about you want to share your experiences Of the people interviewed in all of the cities in the study, 30 percent said they visit parks and beaches on a regular basis. Being able to visit a green area is an important aspect when living in a big city. Taken as a whole, among the factors measured, the one that shows the highest correlation to happiness with life in the city is perceived to be an abundance of clean, green parks and public spaces. When we visit parks and beaches with our friends and families, we also want to share our experience with others. This habit is prevalent in everything we do, using social media wherever we are, and especially when we are out and about (Figure 6). Graph 7 - Activities on the Smartphone when out and about Figure 6: What we do when we are out and about (smartphone users) Make personal calls Listen to music SMS/Chat Browsing Internet Personal email calls Use social networks Play games Read newspaper/books emails activities Watch video clips Organize family activites 23 25 27 % Graph 6 - Activities while commuting (Smartphone users) Figure 7: What you do while commuting (smartphone users) 100% 90% % % % % % 30% 20% 10% 0% Listen to music Never Very seldom Almost every day Browse the Internet Check personal mails Send SMS Make personal calls Use social networks Check work mails Read books/newspaper/magazines Make work calls Other work activities Play games Watch Video clips/tv Check changes in traffic Check changes in time tables Use GPS/Online maps Organize family activities Make purchases online There is great potential to increase the satisfaction level for people living in a city if voice quality and internet connections are improved, and especially in the areas where it does not work satisfactorily today. Ericsson AB SE-126 25 Stockholm, Sweden Telephone + 8 9 00 00 Fax + 8 18 85 www.ericsson.com EAB-13:03 Uen Ericsson AB 2013