One of the best researched papers at the recent MRS Conference in Brighton was Bill Blyth’s ‘Mixed Mode: the only “fitness” regime’. One of the pieces of information which most caught my eye was the number of European countries which have already moved heavily towards households that do not have a landline per house, preferring to be mobile phone only households.
The top 10 in Bill’s list were:
| Country | % of households mobile phone only |
| Lithuania | 50% |
| Finland | 47% |
| Latvia | 39% |
| Portugal | 38% |
| Slovakia | 37% |
| Estonia | 34% |
| Hungary | 30% |
| Austria | 29% |
| France | 14% |
| UK | 11% |
| USA | 8% |
| Germany | 8% |
Table showing % of households with one or more mobile phones, but no fixed telephone line. Sources, Eurobarometer Dec 2005, US National Health Interview Survey 2005.
In addition to the top 10 countries I have added France, UK, USA and Germany from Bill’s figures to make the point that whilst these markets are often lead countries, they aren’t in this area.
One of the interesting conclusions that flows from these figures is that CATI is not a representative technique in large parts of Europe. At the moment most CATI projects deal very badly, if at all, with mobile phones. There is a growing trend to create mobile phone panels, but these will not replicate the claimed representivity of CATI projects.
I have long held the view that because of societal, legal, and technical changes most research will be conducted with panels and opt-in lists in the future, and these figures seem to support that view.
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