Most people with two phones – 6% of the adult population – have one for work and one for play. Often these are with a different service provider.
The data is from Roy Morgan Research, which in the year to November 2014h surveyed over 1500 Australians (aged 14+) who use at least two mobile phones. The majority (53%) have one phone paid for by their employer and one they pay for themselves. Another 44% are using two different consumer-pays mobiles and 4% use two separate business phones (numbers add up to 101% because of rounding).
Just over half of all those with two phones, equal to almost 580,000 Australians, are signed up with two different service providers. Most have both phones on a post-paid plan (58%), with 27% using one post-paid and one prepaid phone (27%), and the rest manage the recharges on two prepaid mobiles (15%).
Among those 557,000 Australians using one provider for each of their phones, 354,000 say both are with Telstra, while just 89,000 are with Optus and 73,000 Vodafone. But Optus and Vodafone get a clear boost among the 579,000 using a different provider for each mobile: while the majority (394,000) still have one of them with Telstra, 283,000 have one with Optus and 215,000 have one with Vodafone.
Across the three main providers, the Telstra-Optus combo accounts for 170,000 dual-mobile users, ahead of Telstra-Vodafone (103,000) and Vodafone-Optus (57,000).
Tim Martin, General Manager - Media, Roy Morgan Research, says: “Over 1.1 million consumers currently use two different mobile phones, compared with 1.3 million a year ago. For most, the second phone is paid for by work, but around half a million use a second consumer-pays mobile.
“It is notable that over half of all two-phoned Australians use a different service provider for each mobile. Customers of smaller MVNOs like Lebara, ALDImobile and Boost are up to three times more likely to have another mobile phone.
“In a competitive market, telcos will need to pinpoint which types of consumers use and pay for two different mobile phones, which use different providers or different payment options, and what their different usage habits are.”
