A new study by Accenture demonstrates how Australia’s perceived poor telecommunications and internet speeds parlays into poor economic performance.
Australia’s political leaders have been debating how best to deliver broadband for well over a decade. Almost all of that debate is framed around the NBN. In that same time the world changed under their feet and commerce starting moving aggressively online and into mobile.
The study, called Screenager ++: Digital maturity reaches a new and higher level reveals the impact of Australia’s poor and decaying telecommunications bedrock. According to the authors, “More than 84 per cent of smartphone users within Australia say they would buy more products and services if reliability and speed were improved by their service providers.”
It gets worse. “The percentage of consumers who plan to increase spending on smartphones, tablets, PCs-laptops and TV set in the next 12 months dropped by 12 per cent since 2014, from 22 per cent to only 10 per cent in 2016.”
People would spend more money online if only their telecommunications services were faster and better. But in fact at the very moment that the consumer world is shifting to the smartphone en masse, those same consumers are abandoning commerce on these new platforms at a new rate.”
Now for what’s its worth, we would like to see a lot more evidence than a single survey about consumer attitudes before we start hoisting the white flag, but its still an alarming outcome.
The report says that despite 84 per cent of consumers now own a smartphone (up from 74 per cent in 2014) – the majority of smartphone owners are unhappy with their mobile service. Specifically:
- 50 per cent are dissatisfied with their connectivity and experience and would switch providers;
- 58 per cent are concerned about the security of financial transactions;
- 42 per cent are concerned about privacy and security; and
- 86 per cent are unhappy with mobile advertising interfering with their experience.
“Mixed data on consumer satisfaction coupled with flat growth in smart devices could be seen as a threat, but forward-looking providers will see it as an opportunity as consumers’ digital appetite has never been greater,” said Marco Vernocchi, global digital lead of Accenture’s Communications, Media & Technology operating group.
“The key is delivering new, high-quality, multi-device and multi-channel experiences that meet consumer expectations immediately. This requires smart, user-centric design that is guided by consumer insights gained through integrated analytics and supported with the connectivity, security and privacy consumers expect.”
This article originally appeared on B&T’s sister business site www.which-50.com
