Mobile is increasingly becoming the primary platform for Internet access outpacing fixed-line Internet access, with 56% of South Africans accessing the mobile Internet daily, London-based trade body MEF’s 'Global Consumer Survey' revealed.

Based on research from over 8 000 respondents in nine countries across five continents, the MEF survey found that 72% access the mobile Internet daily, with 18% no longer using fixed-line Internet.

MEF executive director Rimma Perelmuter said the research demonstrated how mobile has increasingly become the platform of choice for Internet access and reinforced how consumers were using mobile connected devices for a wide range of content and commerce activities including research, payments and financial activities.

Some 57% of respondents in South Africa have engaged in some form of banking or financial activity on their mobile, including balance check and transfer of funds, while 21% have paid a bill using their mobile device.

Meanwhile, 89% of respondents from South Africa reported using their mobile phone to research or buy a digital or physical product.

Findings across all regions, the MEF pointed out, concurred that the vast majority of respondents are actively using their mobile for the purchase of goods and items.

MEF board member for Europe, Middle East and Africa Christian de Faria, also MTN group chief commercial officer, said the MEF survey demonstrated that what has changed is the consumer expectation and propensity to access content and commerce services quickly, easily and at any time. In South Africa alone, 56% are accessing the mobile Internet daily.

“With a plethora of competitively priced smartphones coming onto the market, the increasing availability of mobile Internet and a host of relevant solutions such as mobile money and mobile remittances services, mobile content and commerce will continue to grow exponentially,” De Faria said.

Meanwhile, the survey also cited security as the biggest barrier to M-Commerce adoption.

MEF global board chairperson Andrew Bud believed that with 27% of consumers stating they would use mobile to make purchases more often if security was addressed, this lack of trust inhibited mobile’s full potential to meet growing consumer demand and is a clear industry call to action.