Mobile connection problems for 1/5 of consumers while travelling, OCECPR survey says

One in five Cyprus-based consumers experienced a mobile phone connection problem while travelling and therefore "there is significant room for improvement both in terms of performance and in reducing the incidence of connection problems, concludes the first survey conducted by Commissioner for Communications George Michaelides on the quality of 'Roaming Like at Home' mobile services within the European Economic Area (EEA).

According to a statement from the Office of the Commissioner for Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation (OCECPR), the Commissioner will immediately proceed with instructions to operators to take all necessary steps to ensure that the 'Roaming Like at Home' mobile services provided to consumers are improved.

The survey was carried out through a structured questionnaire prepared by the Market Observatory team of OCECPR, with a sample of 1,001 people who have made trips to EU countries, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway in the last 12 months, with a total of 1,782 trips.

In particular, the main results of the survey, according to the release, are as follows:

Consumers made an average of 1.8 trips in the last 12 months, with the most popular destinations being Greece (71%), Italy (17%), France (12%) and Germany (10%).

Most respondents (81%) did not experience a connectivity problem on arrival in the country of travel, while a percentage (17%) did experience a problem but this was either resolved on its own (13%) or after contacting the provider in Cyprus (4%).

Also, a small percentage (2%) experienced a problem which was not resolved and no connection to the local network was possible at all.

In addition, according to the survey results, in 24% of the trips consumers noticed lower mobile broadband internet speeds (e.g. speed when downloading content), compared to the mobile internet speed experienced in Cyprus. This rate shows a variation depending on the type of device (Android or iPhone).

Also, in 25% of the trips, consumers noticed that their connection was with an older generation network compared to the one they had in Cyprus (e.g. downgrading from 5G they had in Cyprus to 4G during the trip even in cases where 5G network is available), with the variation in the rate of network degradation also depending on the type of device.

According to the survey results, in a relatively small percentage of trips, consumers reported experiencing poor line quality (9%), dropped calls (6%), inability to make calls (6%), inability to send SMS (6%), inability to access the internet using data (16%) or complete loss of service (5%) during the trip. These percentages varied slightly depending on the type of device.

In response to the question "how do you compare the quality of the mobile service you received during your trip [...] compared to your local service in Cyprus", 75% of respondents rated the quality of service during their trip as the same as their local service in Cyprus, 6% rated it as better, while 18% found it worse.

(Source: CNA)