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Ofcom’s annual Communications Market Report offers a wide-ranging overview of how people in the UK access and use communications services. Below are the key takeaways from the 2015 report, distilled into clear insights that can help businesses and decision-makers understand current trends and anticipate future changes.
The UK has become a “smartphone society”
For the first time, smartphones have overtaken laptops as the primary device for accessing information online. One third (33%) of internet users now identify their smartphone as the most important device for going online, compared with 30% who prefer laptops. By contrast, the 2014 report showed 40% choosing laptops and just 22% choosing smartphones.
Smartphone ownership among adults has risen dramatically: 66% of UK adults now carry a smartphone, up from 39% in 2012. Usage is highest among 16–24 year olds, while the 55–64 age group has more than doubled its smartphone ownership since 2012 (from 19% to 50%).
Michael Allen, Solutions VP at Dynatrace, remarked that the report highlights the substantial opportunity mobile presents as a digital channel, while also noting consumers’ high expectations for performance: nearly a third of UK consumers will abandon a mobile website or app that takes longer than three seconds to load.
Faster mobile access via 4G has helped drive this shift. During 2014, 4G subscriptions rose sharply from 2.7 million to 23.6 million. As a result, mobile users now spend almost twice as long per day on smartphones as they do on laptops (1 hour 54 minutes versus 1 hour 9 minutes).
Television still draws the most viewing time and revenue
Despite the rise of smartphones, television remains the medium we spend the most time with: the average daily viewing time is 3 hours and 40 minutes. Weekly TV reach dipped slightly to 90% in the latest figures, down from 93% in 2013, a change that may reflect some viewers shifting to on-demand services and mobile viewing.
When asked which device they would miss most, consumers still put television ahead of smartphones—around 37% said they would miss the TV the most—even though roughly three in ten felt that TV programmes had declined in quality over the previous year.
Viewing habits are shifting: live TV viewing fell by an average of 12 minutes, while video-on-demand (VoD) services have grown rapidly. Six in ten adults reported using a VoD service in the past 12 months, and one third say they use VoD more often than a year ago. More than half (56%) of UK homes now have a TV connected to the internet via a smart TV or set-top box.
Fixed broadband remains dominant
Four in five households in the UK now have fixed broadband, and about one third of those connections qualify as “superfast” (30 Mbit/s or more).
Although mobile broadband subscriptions are rising, there is little evidence that consumers are abandoning fixed broadband; only 2% of households rely solely on mobile broadband. Residential fixed broadband speeds increased markedly in the years leading up to 2014, rising from 7.6 Mbit/s to 22.8 Mbit/s. Mobile broadband has also improved—average 4G speeds reached about 14.7 Mbit/s.
However, speed is only part of the experience. Mobile connections generally have higher latency than fixed lines, which can degrade real-world performance and user experience. Ofcom’s research suggests this difference helps explain why mobile broadband users tend to watch less online video than those on fixed connections.
How these trends matter for business
The report underscores several practical implications:
- Prioritise mobile performance and user experience. With smartphones now often the primary internet device, slow-loading mobile sites or apps risk losing users quickly.
- Design for multi-platform viewing. As VoD and connected TVs grow, content strategies should accommodate on-demand and second-screen behaviours.
- Don’t assume mobile will replace fixed broadband. Fixed connections still deliver better latency and more video consumption, so hybrid strategies that target both fixed and mobile users remain important.
- Segment by age. Rapid adoption among older age groups opens new opportunities for services tailored to 55–64 year olds and beyond.
The full Ofcom Communications Market Report provides additional data and context for these trends.
What do you think about the findings in Ofcom’s report? Let us know in the comments.