SA surfs mobile web
2007-06-06 14:47
Cape Town - South Africa is among the top five countries when it comes to accessing the internet via cellphones, a study shows.
According to data compiled by UK-based company Bango, which tracks users from over 190 countries accessing the mobile web, South Africa is in third position.
The top five countries accessing the mobile web in April 2007 were the UK at 27%, the US at 21%, South Africa at 11%, India at 9% and Indonesia at 3%.
Bango data also shows that 9% of all accesses to mobile websites now come from India, up from 4% a year ago. India, with a population of just over 1.1 billion and lack of an established fixed phone line network, relies on cellphones to stay in touch. There, cellphone usage is set to exceed European levels within the next few years.
In the first quarter of 2007 the top handset for accessing mobile websites was the Sanyo Katana SCP 6600. Other popular handsets included the Motorola RAZR V3, the Sony Ericsson K750i and the Samsung A900.
"We see that wherever flat-rate mobile data charges are pervasive in a country then there's much more web browsing," said Anil Malhotra, SVP of Marketing at Bango.
"This is certainly true of the US and South Africa and the imminent introduction of flat-rate data charges in the UK will push up mobile web usage in the UK even further."
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