Women spend more time on the phone and send more text messages than men

On the occasion of International Women´s Day, this Tuesday March 8th, Mobistar unveils certain differences between men and women with regard to mobile telephony. The main finding is that women spend more time on the phone, and send a larger number of text messages. They also have a stronger emotional connection with their mobile operator. On the other hand, fewer of them surf on their mobile phones, and they are also less fond of smartphones than men.

How do women use their mobile phones? Do they have a mobile phone behaviour which is different from that of men? On the eve of the 100th anniversary of International Women´s Day, celebrated this March 8th all around the globe, Mobistar analyzed how women use their mobile phones ... and discovered that women and men have usage profiles that differ in some very interesting ways.

Among Mobistar customers, women communicate significantly more than men. On average, they spend 19 minutes more on the phone per month, while each of their calls lasts, on average, an additional 15 seconds. The difference between men and women is even more pronounced when you compare the number of text messages sent: the figures reveal that each month, Mobistar´s female customers send 51 more SMS´s than their male alter egos.

That being said, men also have their strong points. For example, they’re much more active than women when it comes to mobile Internet. Not only do more of them surf on their mobile phone (22 % more), but they also consume an extra 14 MB of data each month. Men also hold a slender lead with regard to roaming: 16 % of them use their mobile telephone abroad, compared with 15 % for women. Another noteworthy fact: when they do find themselves in another country, the trend reverses, and we see that men phone more often and send more text messages than women.

If we look at all of the Belgians who have mobile phones, we see other interesting differences between men and women. Men are generally more fond of technology than women: they’re indeed three times more likely to possess a smartphone (15 % of the men have one, compared to only 6 % of the women). A slightly higher percentage of men than women have opted for mobile phone subscriptions instead of rechargeable cards (59 % of the men are postpaid customers, versus 55 % of the women).

Finally, it should be noted that women have a stronger attachment than men to their mobile operator. When men are asked if they would be prepared to recommend their mobile operator to one of their friends, only 48 % of them answers yes. Among the women, by contrast, 57 % of those questioned say that they would be willing to plug their mobile operator among their acquaintances. There’s definitely a love story going on between women and their mobile phones!