Kineto Wireless, Inc., a key innovator and leading supplier of telco-OTT solutions to the mobile industry, today announced the results of a new global consumer survey indicating that up to 16 percent of mobile users in key markets around the world have poor to no mobile voice coverage within their home. The survey was carried out to discern the quality of mobile voice coverage within subscriber homes and to understand the applicability of using Wi-Fi as a ready solution to improve that coverage.  While the survey identified an ongoing mobile coverage challenge in the home, it also discovered that 89 percent of respondents with poor-to-no mobile voice coverage at home were also smartphone owners that have already configured their phone to connect automatically to a home Wi-Fi network.

“Providing high quality indoor voice coverage has been a challenge since the inception of the mobile industry,” said Ken Kolderup, chief marketing officer for Kineto. “Fortunately, rapid consumer adoption of Wi-Fi enabled smartphones as well as home Wi-Fi over the last several years is presenting mobile operators a clear path to meet the challenge. Enabling subscribers to use their mobile voice and messaging services over existing Wi-Fi networks represents a tremendous opportunity for operators to make significant progress toward fulfilling this unmet need.”

The online survey, sponsored by Kineto, was conducted in April 2014 and included over 2,500 respondents from major North American, South American, Western European, and Asian markets. Additional highlights from the survey include:

12 percent of all respondents classified mobile voice coverage within their home as poor (e.g. dead spots within their home) to non-existent
Asia ranked the highest in mobile coverage in the home, followed by North America, Western Europe, and then South America
25 percent of all respondents indicated they had switched mobile service providers due to a home coverage issue
In the U.S., 87% of respondents with poor to no mobile voice coverage at home indicated they were smartphone users that regularly connect their phone to a home Wi-Fi network.  That same number was 89% in the U.K. and 84% across Asia.
“It is astonishing that when we're now talking about 4G wireless broadband speeds competing with fixed-line broadband, voice continues to be the poor relation as indoor coverage continues to be a challenge," said Nick Lane, chief insight analyst at mobilesquared. “For many households mobile continues to be the only conversation that ends with ‘hello? hello?’”