Close to one in five (18%) of Indian mobile customers said that they would change their operator if they have the ability to retain their number.  For some mobile services, this news might cause some concern: a quarter of customers of Reliance and Tata Indicom said that they would be keen to change if MNP becomes reality, while 19 percent of BSNL subscribers would do the same.   

Those most likely to switch: high spenders, postpaid subscribers and business subscribers indicated a higher tendency to change carriers versus prepaid and low to medium spenders.  Postpaid spenders have almost double the minutes usage of prepaid subscribers, and also have a far higher usage of data applications. 

“When MNP was introduced in the U.S., price and promotions were by far the leading drivers of acquisition.  Ultimately, the operator who leveraged the consumer propensity to choose based on those criteria was successful in riding the MNP wave.  In India, MNP can be leveraged by operators through smart, targeted marketing and promotions to coincide with the introduction of MNP.  It presents a powerful opportunity for operators to drive in-bound porting of high-value subscribers provided they have a good understanding of who is more likely to switch and why,” said Shankari Panchapakesan, Executive Director, Telecom Practice at Nielsen India. 

According to Nielsen’s research, 39 percent of those surveyed said they selected their mobile operator based on price, while network quality was the driver of choice for 36 percent.  Promotion, reputation and customer service were also identified as considerations.

Nielsen’s Mobile Consumer Insights study surveyed 12,500 Indian mobile subscribers across 50 metropolitan areas.

“As Australians become increasingly less wired in the ways they access the Internet, a greater focus is being placed on laptop-style computers rather than fixed desktops,” said Tony Marlow, Research Director for Nielsen Online.

Other highlights of the report include:

• Australians spent an average of 89.2 hours per week consuming media, up from 84.4 hours in 2007 and 71.4 hours in 2006.
• They spent 16.1 hours per week online, up from 13.7 hours in 2007.
• They like to multitask, with 61 percent watching TV while online.
• Mobile ownership has almost reached a saturation point with 92 percent now reporting owning a mobile phone.

View the full press release with more information here.

During the second quarter of 2008, a typical U.S. mobile subscriber placed or received 204 phone calls each month.  In comparison, the average mobile customer sent or received 357 text messages per month — a 450% increase over the number of text messages circulated monthly during the same period in 2006.

U.S. teens (ages 13 to 17) had the highest levels of text messaging in Q2 2008, sending and receiving an average of 1,742 text messages per month.  In comparison, teens took part in an average of 231 mobile phone calls per month, during the same time period.

Nielsen tracks billing activity through an opt-in panel of more than 50,000 personally liable, postpaid U.S. mobile lines across the top four carriers, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless.

Read more about text messaging trends in the U.S. in the November issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The New York Times, Wired, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cellular-news.com, Gearlog, and on CNET.com.