How do UK and US mobile consumers compare?

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On either side of the pond, mobile phone consumers have taken different approaches to market purchases.

Variations in tariffs, contract length and even geography, brought about contrasts in the way mobile phones are purchased, but smartphones like the iPhone have challenged the norm for users on the prowl for a new mobile.

Carolina Milanesi, research vice president of mobile devices at Gartner, said a greater range of subsidies from UK providers allows consumers to choose devices with desired features and then pick that device from the provider with the best deal, a contrast to in the US.

“In the US, it’s always been about the provider and the data and voice plan that best fitted your needs,” Milanesi told IT PRO. “Then, you would get whatever phone the provider would put on that package.”

This is evident in the different ways mobile websites show their content. The UK site Know Your Mobile displays handsets upfront whereas its sister US site, Know Your Cell, lists carriers and then shows products to consumers.

Ian Fogg, principal analyst at Forrester, geographical scale was the one significant difference between the UK and US, impacting the level of coverage on which mobile phone users rely – a matter that is still a challenge to the US.

Contract lengths also vary between the two countries, with two thirds of UK consumers on prepay phones and the majority of US mobile consumers on long-term contracts.

Different technology

Market differences are also a result of varying technologies used by UK and US providers, according to Fogg.

UK mobile users have a much easier time switching SIM cards between phones than they would in the US because UK carriers use essentially the same technology on the same frequencies, he added.

“Any phone can work on any network, unless it has been locked to a network, but that lock can be undone very easily,” Fogg told IT PRO. “That means if consumers want to switch networks, it’s relatively easy for them to do so.”

However, US companies have a mix of technology, with AT&T and T-Mobile using SIM cards with CDMA technology – similar to UK carriers – and Sprint and Verizon use GSM.

iPhone in the market

This is why Apple’s iPhone is currently exclusive to AT&T in the US, because Apple would have to make a separate handset for companies like Verizon or Sprint, Fogg added.

As for the iPhone, Fogg said it is having a major impact on both UK and US carriers, causing them to look into how they price data, avoid congestion and manage their mobile networks.

“The iPhone is actually, if anything, more of a unifying force in terms of the experience of carriers on either side of the Atlantic,” he said.” The experience is more similar than it is different. “

Both the lead carriers for the iPhone the US, AT&T, and in the UK, O2, have both reported congestion in network quality problems.

Future of subsidising

As for the US, historically subsidy levels have been lower than in Europe, but with the shift to higher end devices, subsidy level has increased closer to the European model.

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