Cost of living crisis - How likely are consumers to cut back on mobile data plans?

Inflation globally has doubled over the past year and the higher cost of living now looms over people across the world.

To understand consumer behavior, YouGov asked people where they would make cutbacks if household budgets were squeezed by the rise in cost of living. Nearly a fifth of respondents (19%) across 18 global markets said mobile data plans/ cost were a likely area for cost reduction.

Albeit this is grim news for the telco brands, it makes mobile data plans one of the area's most resistant to cost-cutting in the face of inflation, behind only healthcare (9%) and insurance (13%).

From North America, Mexican (31%) and Canadian (25%) consumers are most likely to cut back on mobile data plans, significantly more so than US (14%) consumers. The Asian market was divided with consumers in India (28%), UAE (24%), and Singapore (22%) more likely to cut back on mobile data plans in comparison to Indonesia (17%), China (14%) and Hong Kong (14%). In Europe, around a fifth of consumers (18-20%) say that they would cut back on mobile data plans, the exception being Denmark (8%).

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Methodology

The data is based on the interviews of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 508 and 2065 for each market. All interviews were conducted online in May 2022. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples.