The most surprising result was the very strong interest in a "zero-to-mobile" service. This service is the most simple of the so-called "find-me, follow-me" services offered by communications companies over the last decade. It enables callers to a wireline phone to press "0" and be instantly transferred to the recipient's cell phone. 54% of all respondents who have a mobile phone, including a whopping 61% of those under 35, were interested in such a service

While such services have been available in various forms for roughly a decade, consumer adoption interest is just now starting to flourish. The impressive response rates for the "find-me, follow-me" type service were corroborated by the responses to a question asking which feature consumers would want if they had to choose only one among several choices presented. By a two-to-one margin, respondents chose the ability to have calls forwarded to their mobile phones.

Control Still Paramount
Previous TMIA research had revealed that subscribers want to have enough control to decide whether or not to answer a call. Of all the surveyed consumers who were interested in the "zero-to-mobile" service, over three quarters -- 83% -- were adamant about maintaining the ability to screen their calls.

An important conclusion to draw is that if people have the capability to screen their calls, they prefer to be reached live rather than to receive a voicemail message.

The results discussed in this announcement were obtained through an on-line survey conducted by TMIA's Unified Communications Committee. The survey was designed to determine interest in three features: notification of home messages through a text-message that appears on the mobile phone; a single mailbox for home and mobile messages; and the ability for a caller to press "0" and be transferred to the recipient's mobile phone. The survey was conducted among 1500 randomly-picked Internet users, of whom 1006 were mobile phone users. The questions about feature preference were asked to the 1006 mobile phone users. Demographics of the respondent community are available from TMIA.

See the chart depicting responses discussed in this announcement.

About TMIA
The Messaging Industry Association, formed in 1998, is an open forum comprised of over 44 companies including major service providers, prominent voicemail/messaging vendors, ASPs, customer premises equipment (CPE) providers and other parties. TMIA members share an interest in advancing the use of all messaging services in all markets, including SMS, UC, MMS and enhanced voicemail.

TMIA is actively recruiting members throughout the messaging industry. Those interested are encouraged to call 519-620-8668 or visit TMIA's Web page at www.tmia.org.

« Back