All SMEs Use Mobile, 64% Use Mobile Broadband, Half Use Mobile Email

A recent survey of small and mid-sized businesses in Australia confirms what you might have guessed: there is virtually ubiquitous use of mobile voice, at 95 to 97 percent. Mobile email is used by about half of SMEs.

Data transfers of one sort or another, including photos and other data, are conducted by about 32 percent of SMEs, and we can safely assume most of those transfers are of pictures.

Mobile applications other than voice and text messaging were more important for businesses with 20 to 99 associates, for distributed organizations and some verticals, including finance and insurance; wholesale; and transport and storage.

Mobile broadband was used by 64 percent of the 305 SMEs interviewed. Usage of mobile broadband was highest for SMEs located in remote locations (87 per cent), compared with 60 percent of regional SMEs and 59 percent of metropolitan SMEs.

Larger organizations with between 20 and 49 mobile staff reported 80 percent penetration of mobile broadband. Also, some industry verticals were heavier users, including mining, where there was 100 percent penetration of mobile broadband.

In the transport and storage vertical 86 percent of SMEs reported using mobile broadband. About 84 percent of organizations in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries vertical reported using mobile broadband.

Organizations engaged in either cultural or recreational services had 80 percent use while SMEs in the wholesale sector reported comparable use of 79 percent.

Apart from voice communications (including text messaging), SME respondents also commonly use mobile telecommunications to access email, and to transfer images and data, the study
suggests.

The most common access devices were mobile phones, used by at least 74 percent of respondents, while 43 percent reported use of smart phones and 38 percent reported using wireless modems. Another 27 percent of respondents reported using modem cards for notebook PCs.

Some 58 per cent of respondents who currently use 3G expect to expand their usage in the next six to 12 months. The proportion of respondents indicating expanded usage was highest for SMEs located in metropolitan areas (69 percent), as compared to regional SMEs (60 percent) and SMEs located in remote locations (38 percent).

Expanded usage also was more likely at larger entities, such as SMEs with 20 to 199 employees (77 percent) and 200 or more employees (73 percent).

Other predictors of expanded usage are prevalence of mobile employees and organizations with multiple locations.

Of the businesses surveyed, 37 percent of SMEs who currently do not use 3G technology are considering switching over in the next 12 months. This percentage is highest for SMEs located in metropolitan areas (39 percent), compared with regional SMEs (35 percent), and 29 percent of SMEs operating in remote, rural locations.

The two main reasons given by respondents as to why they do not currently use 3G technology is that they are satisfied with their existing mobile technology (45 percent) or that it is too costly (31 percent).

When asked which applications SME 3G currently use, almost all referred to access to mobile communications in all locations (92 percent), with the next most frequently used applications being access to the Internet or email for mobile staff and access to the main office IT network for mobile staff. The most frequently-cited planned application was the introduction of mobile (EFTPOS/credit card) payment services (22 percent). IP