A quarter more

Video telephony causes data volume to rise sharply

In Germany, the cell phone is used most often for WhatsApp.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

After a coronavirus-related record in 2020, call minutes have fallen back to the pre-coronavirus level of 2019. However, people are not making fewer calls, they are just making them differently. Data-intensive applications such as video telephony led to an increase in the volume of data transmitted via mobile networks by a quarter to 5.073 million gigabytes last year. Active SIM cards have also risen sharply, according to the Forum Mobilkommunikation (FMK).

At the end of 2023, 26.2 million SIM cards were in circulation, compared to 24 million in the previous year. This includes not only SIM cards in smartphones, tablets and laptops, but also M2M cards (machine-to-machine), which are used in cars or in GPS trackers for pets. The growth is particularly attributable to the latter, it was reported at a press conference on Thursday.

In traditional telephony, the demand for calls has leveled off again at 22.3 billion minutes after the coronavirus peak. This exact figure was also reached in 2019. In the first coronavirus year 2020, 29.1 billion minutes were spent on the phone, "a lonely record", said FMK President Alexander Stock, who also sits on the Management Board of A1 Telekom Austria AG.

If you ask people in this country what they do with their smartphone, the chat service WhatsApp (91%), taking photos (82%) and the alarm clock function (73%) are mentioned most frequently, according to a survey of 500 people conducted by the FMK in April. 65 percent use their cell phone as an organizer, calendar or for e-mails, as do 65 percent to send or receive text messages. The SMS has often been declared dead, but is still being used, said FMK Managing Director Margit Kropik.

Digitalization is progressing - but not in the smart home
Many things in daily life are now done digitally. According to the survey, 81% of respondents carry out their banking transactions digitally, i.e. via the internet using a computer, smartphone or tablet. Almost half of respondents also shop for clothes or furniture digitally, as well as dealing with the authorities (46%) or reading newspapers or magazines (45%).

The digital control of lights, blinds or household appliances has not yet become so widespread. Only 15 percent of respondents use smart homes. Even everyday goods such as food or drugstore products are preferred to be purchased digitally (14% digitally).