Marketing

There was also a significant rise in the take-up of 3G mobile connections and increasingly sophisticated smartphones that offer broadband-like connectivity in a handset. Nearly one third of consumers are now using the 3G network's higher-bandwidth capabilities and with one in four claiming to own a smartphone in Q1 2010. This compares to one in five and one in seven respectively in Q1 2009. In contrast, the proportion of homes using fixed-line telephony fell during 2009, down two percentage points to 85%, reflecting an increase in the number of mobile-only households.

The number of homes with digital video recorders (DVRs) continued to increase sharply during 2009, rising from 27% to 37%, while the proportion of homes with Blu-ray/high definition DVD players increased by six percentage points to 17%.