This equates to 23 million users. This can be seen in figure 3b below. The vast majority of these were personally owned rather than provided through work. Compared with other recent Oftel surveys , the number of homes using mobiles instead of fixed lines appears to be continuing to rise. 3.4 Figure 3d shows mobile ownership levels amongst various demographic groups of the population.
Mobile ownership is still largely dependent on income, age and social grade.
3.6 Mobile users were more likely than those without mobiles to have other technologies at home including pay TV, PC, and home Internet. Consumers were asked whether anyone in their household owned a mobile phone. Ownership was lowest in Scotland and Northern Ireland and to a lesser extent the north of England, however, even in these regions more than half of homes claim to have at least one mobile. The spread of mobile users by social grade in particular is moving towards a more reflective profile of the population. Preference for the flexibility that mobiles offer, and cost related issues such as ability to control payments are the main drivers behind this trend.