Sixty per cent believe mobile phone calls are expensive

The majority of mobile phone users have no idea how much they pay for a call, even though the general perception is that mobile calls are expensive, according to a survey commissioned by the Malta Communications Authority.

Just 41 per cent of respondents know how much they spend on a mobile call, but 48.6 per cent believe the tariff is "expensive" and 12 per cent "too expensive".

The National Statistics Office carried out the MCA's Consumer Perceptions Survey with 700 respondents taking part. It was done to help the authority draw up better regulatory measures.

The majority of mobile phone users seem content with the service being provided, with 66 per cent describing it as "good" and 20 per cent "very good".

Just over half spend up to Lm5 a month on mobile usage. A quarter of respondents spend up to Lm10 and five per cent more than Lm25. Three per cent said they do not know how much they spend.

Mobile operators would do well to look at the survey before raising their prices.

A total of 64.3 per cent said they would switch mobile phone operator if prices were raised between five and 10 per cent. Just over half (53 per cent) said they would use the landline telephone more if prices were increased by such a margin.

Over a third (35.2 per cent) said price was the most important factor when it came to choosing a mobile operator. Twenty-four per cent said the products and services on offer were important.

Eighty-six per cent have never changed mobile operator - with a third of those that did citing cheaper prices as the reason for doing so.

Vodafone and Go Mobile's share of the market is split right down the middle, with 50.3 per cent and 49.7 per cent respectively. The vast majority of respondents (92 per cent) are on a pre-paid scheme.

The survey confirms the addiction of the Maltese for text messages - 29 per cent said they "very often" and 23 per cent "always" considered text messages to be a good substitute for mobile calls.

Just 13 per cent said text messages were never a good substitute.

The figures confirm statistics released by the MCA last February which showed that the Maltese send an average of 90 text messages a month.

A total of 11.5 per cent said they would select a particular network operator manually when abroad to find the cheapest one for SMS. Over a third (35 per cent) said they "sometimes" consider a landline phone call to be a good substitute for a mobile call. On the other hand, 21.5 per cent said this is rarely the case.

Twenty-eight per cent said they did not use their mobile phone when they were abroad, preferring to use a landline telephone connection instead. Ten per cent said it was too expensive to use a mobile phone when abroad.