'2005 Survey on the Wireless Internet Use' surveyed over mobile
phone users aged 12 and older conducted by NIDA (National Internet
Development Agency of Korea) in August 2005 shows that wireless
Internet users of aged 20's and 30's increase substantially
comparing to the previous year when the aged 10's mainly used
the wireless Internet. The Internet use rates of aged 20's and
30's are 73.1% (10.4%p increase) and 42.7% (8.5%p) respectively.
Aged 20's and 30's spend 58.1 minutes and 49.4 minutes respectively
on using Internet on weekly average basis which are more than
those of any other aged groups. They also pay 7800 won and 7200
won for using it relatively more than other aged groups.
As of August 2005, 42.8% of all Koreans use the wireless Internet
more than once within the last 6 months which increase 2.6%p
from the previous year. 42.7% of males and 42.9% of females
use the wireless Internet, which shows that there is hardly
difference of using the wireless Internet between genders.
For contents used via wireless Internet, wireless Internet
users use it mainly for 'downloading bell sounds/melody' (96.8%),
'listening to music' (45.4%), 'e-learning/e-books' (42.1%) and
'games' (37.1%). However, they are willing to use it for 'watching
moving pictures' (35.4%), 'financial transactions' (27.9%),
and 'telematics' (27.4%) more than any other services. It is
expected to enlarge to use wireless Internet service in the
area of daily lives.
The main reasons for using the wireless Internet which users
respond are related to personal affairs such as 'usability anywhere'
(48.5%), 'relieving tedium in transportation or spare time'
(37.6%), 'to use services and information provided by the wireless
Internet' (31.1%) and 'curiosity for new services' (30.4%).
The wireless Internet use rate for official works is only 6.6%.
In spite of increasing the wireless Internet use, users are
still less satisfied with using the wireless Internet than the
average. They give lower scores to 'using fees' (2.2 of 5),
'initial connection speed' (2.9 of 5), 'data transferring speed'
(2.9 of 5), 'convenience of searching sites' (2.9 of 5) than
the average score.
On the other hand, merely 1.4% of mobile phone users aged 12
and older use DMB service which was launched in May 2005. However,
24.1% of those who use mobile phones and 40.9% of those who
are aware of DMB service are willing to use DMB service in the
near future. The use rate of DMB service is expected to grow
with starting T-DMB service in December 2005.
2.6 % of mobile phone users aged 12 and older use telematics
service which is currently on test. 30.0% of them are aware
of telematics service, and 41.3% of those who are aware of it
are willing to use it in the near future. For portable Internet
service, 40.4% of those who are aware of the service plan to
use it.
In conclusion, some tasks including to lower fees
and to diversify contents/information are to be performed for
expanding wireless Internet use. However, mobile phone users
show their high expectation to use newly-launched services such
as telematics and portable Internet, which leads the gradual
increase of wireless Internet use.
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