Yesterday OFCOM released their “Mobile Sector Assessment“(PDF). Billmonitor is in a unique position to comment at a consumer level view of the market, through the analysis of hundreds of anonymised actual user bills.

Despite a significant increase in the choice of tariffs and services available, BillMonitor’s research shows that 88% of UK contract mobile users could save on average 42.6% (£211 annually) on their mobile bill by choosing the right tariff. This suggests that the 26 million UK mobile contract users could make £4.4 billion in savings each year.

OFCOM’s Mobile Sector Assessment (MSA) states that ‘competition in the mobile sector has, on the whole, been a success for UK consumers.’ BillMonitor agrees this is true in terms of available choice, however from the numbers above it’s clear that consumers are struggling to make the right choice. Consumer Focus, the independent campaign organisation, in their recent assessment found that the mobile sector had the lowest rating in terms of consumer confidence.

It’s not hard to see why this is the case; BillMonitor is tracking 228,532 tariffs and add-ons which represents significant and meaningful choice. However, as mobile consumers, our usage patterns are changing continuously as new services become available. The MSA highlights the increasing amount of calls made as well as the rise in usage of new services, especially data and text; BillMonitor sees evidence this makes it hard for consumers to keep up with suitable tariffs. Compounding this, BillMonitor has found that 70% of consumers are not confident in estimating their usage with 36% saying they have ‘no idea’.

BillMonitor has found substantiating evidence. As seen in actual user bills, 82% of users have a plan that is too big for them, and while some extra inclusive usage is desirable, usually the consumer is paying for many minutes and texts they never use. At the same time consumers are failing to take advantage of bundles available to them for the new data or other services they are starting to use (BillMonitor is currently tracking 163 bundles).

Do consumers really need to switch provider?
Although the MSA highlights the importance of switching provider in driving healthy competition, finding the right tariff does not necessarily mean switching. Indeed as the MSA highlights 74% of mobile users are not interested in switching provider currently and 60% have never switched.

Summary Statistics
88% of BillMonitor users save money by switching to the tariff most suitable for them – an average saving of £17.56. a month – that’s £211 a year! In percentage terms, the average mobile contract user seen by BillMonitor saves 42.6% on deals that include a free phone.

• There is no need to change provider – 91% still save £17.64 on average by changing to their most suitable tariff with their current provider (including SIM-only tariffs)
• If they are willing to keep their existing handset then 92% can save £19.47 on average per month using a SIM-only tariff most without changing provider. The MSA highlights the growing popularity of this type of contract, particularly due to the lack of any lock-in period.
• If everyone used BillMonitor to find their ideal tariff, the UK average monthly bill would drop from £39.27 to £21.28.

Conclusion
BillMonitor agrees that there is sufficient and growing choice in the mobile market, however we believe the significant inefficiency evidenced by consumer choices requires attention. BillMonitor is aiming to provide the information the consumer needs to navigate the huge choice available and we would welcome specific initiatives by OFCOM on this front.

The presentation I gave worked through Karoosh and explained how we managed to put together a complex price comparison site in a relatively short amount of time using open source software such as Ruby on Rails and Twisted. You can see the slides that I used here.

I’m going to be discussing what’s cool about Karoosh from a technological point of view, working from our data harvesting through to our lovely front end.