Three-quarters of Americans want multi-mode mobiles

By wirelessfederation,

A survey commissioned by the Consumers Union shows that nearly three-quarters of Americans would support legislation that would force mobile phones to be compatible with all wireless standards.

According to the survey, 73% said they would support a government rule that requires handsets to be compatible with all US cellular services. This view was supported most strongly by smart phone owners (81%). Virtually all respondents (96%) felt that consumers should be able to keep their existing handsets when changing carriers. An overwhelming majority (88%) said that their handset should work on any cellular network they choose.

According to Parul P. Desai, policy counsel for Consumers Union, as technology makes it easier for people to take their phones with them when changing wireless carriers; they want to make sure this benefit is extended to all consumers. The poll results announced today make it clear that this is a feature that nearly all cell phone owners feel they should be able to utilize.

It is important that they work to put rules in to place to ensure that the benefits of interoperability be made available to consumers, rather than prolonging the current trend of locking handsets to specific providers.

Whether consumers would be willing to pay the fairly steep price premium and performance loss that would come from having phones that are required to be compatible with WiMAX, iDEN, CDMA and GSM remains to be seen.

Methodology The Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a telephone survey using two nationally representative probability samples: landline telephone households and cell phones. 981 interviews were completed among adults aged 18+ who own a cell phone. The margin error of this poll is +/- 3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.