[gorilla]

Couldn't resist :D


Ofcom's Director in Northern Ireland, Denis Wolinski, welcomed the findings of this year's Communications Market Report (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/cmrni):

'Northern Ireland now leads the UK for mobile use.

'We're more likely here to own one, more likely to use it than our home phone, and less likely to cut back on using it than people elsewhere in the UK.

'It's also good to see that Northern Ireland has closed the gap this year on the rest of the UK for the take up of broadband and digital TV, with rural areas leading the way.'

Far from being a bunch of redneck terrorist types, we are actually pretty tech savvy.

You can read the full report here (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/cmrmain).

Do you agree with the findings? Is this all that Ofcom do?

[Ben]

The general findings that we're more likely to cut back on other spending than on our mobiles was quite interesting but, IMHO, quite expected. Mobile phones are a pretty personal thing, we carry them on our person most of the time, and such an 'essential' piece of kit is unlikely to receive the same sort of cost-cutting thought as going out for a nice meal.

Nice news about NI usage, though. Is your fixed infrastructure really poor over there or something? ;)

[solo12002]

No we just have common sense.

1. we live so close to the south of Irlane its nice to keep in touch with home 2. why pay line rental to BT when our mobiles do the same job
3. Most of the time we dont appear to have the issues of network down etc as often as you english lot do lol

[gorilla]

We probably have a younger population which means they are more likely to want a mobile. I don't think there are any infrastructure worries, but as Solo says, we are more likely to use a mobile than a landline.

I have a virgin bundle and it's cheaper for me to keep the landline and not use it, as opposed to getting rid. If you have a BT line (you don't get the choice) you still have to pay lental rental, which is just a rip off.