More Testra Customers Own Older Handsets; Less Interested in Upgrades

Australia's Telstra has the highest proportion of customers with older mobile phones in the country, but also the lowest proportion of customers looking to upgrade their old phone to something newer.

According to Roy Morgan Single Source, 27.3% of all Australian mobile phone users have mobiles that are more than two years old. Telstra has the highest proportion of customers with old handsets: 30.3%, or about 2.2 million people.

Meanwhile, Vodafone is at the other end of the spectrum, with the fewest customers with old phones, and also the highest proportion looking to upgrade.

Overall, 24.3% (or 4.1 million) of Australian mobile phone users intend to upgrade their mobile phones in the next 12 months.

General Manager Media & Communications of Roy Morgan Research George Pesutto said that "Mobile phone users with models over two years old are most likely to own a Nokia (30%), Samsung (21%) or iPhone (18%), which indicates that these are the main brands."

Slower handset upgrade rates can be a mixed blessing for mobile networks, as they are faced with lower handset subsidy costs and less demand on their mobile data networks. Conversely though, older handset users tend to spend less and are more vulnerable to being lured away to a rival network.