Billing Info Confuses Mobile Users
- Mobiles stretch lead on home phones
- Bundled plans popular
- Hard copy directory use falling
A majority of Australian telephone consumers have a patchy understanding of billing and call price information, according to ACMA research into how consumers’ use and understand their phone services and numbers.
The research found that mobile phones continue to leap ahead as the main communication service, now being so for nearly half of all Australians (47 per cent), compared with 33 per cent primarily with fixed landline.
Bundled plans have become very popular. The research found that three in five mobile phone users and two in five home phone users report have a usage plan. Those that have a usage plan for only one service report a higher proportion of calls from that service compared to the service without a cap or deal.
Both of these trends are major factors contributing to a decline in consumers’ understanding of the price and location information embedded in traditional fixed telephone numbers, meaning that embedding this information may no longer be an effective mechanism to fulfil consumer protection needs.
A related topic was consumers’ understanding of less frequently called number types such as 13/1300 and 1800 numbers. It seems these are confusing for many Australians compared to more frequently called numbers like mobile and local numbers. One in five Australians was either unable to define a local call from a landline or their explanation was incorrect.
While a majority of Australians continue to keep and use a hard copy classified, directory, all except those aged over 65 years are just as likely to use the electronic version as the hard copy directory
Directories and directory assistance services are used twice as often to find a business number as a residential number, indicating that the role directories have played historically by encouraging call connections between people may be declining.
In this paper, the ACMA is seeking feedback on the implications of these findings, including how regulatory arrangements might be adjusted over time to reflect and facilitate changes in consumer communication use including whether telephone numbers remain the most effective strategy for providing price information.
