We may have to change the name “smartphone” if the trend detected in a study by Hiya continues. The provider of spam protection technology found that robocalls continue to increase and people are using their mobile phones less and less to make and receive calls. Despite spam, they still find mobile phones valuable tools for dealing with businesses, however.The firm found that spam calls rose to 25.3 billion during the first half of this year, an increase of 128% compared to the first six months of 2018. Indeed, the total for the first half of this year almost equaled the 26.3 billion received during the entirety of 2018. Another measure of the increase is that consumers averaged seven spam calls per month at the end of 2018 –and now average 16 per month.
The increase in spam is impacting usage. Since January, the number of calls being picked up has dropped 4% to 48%. The overall number of calls made and received has dropped 17% to 178 per month, Hiya says.
Cellular Spam
There is a bright side to all this, however. The firm found that 69% of what are identified as legitimate business calls are picked up, a 16% increase from the beginning of the year. Call length has grown from 54 seconds to 2:53. Phone calls are the preferred communications mode for healthcare, financial services and the education industries, researchers said.
It is a mixed bag. “It should come as no surprise that the pervasiveness of spam calls is having an impact on how Americans use their phones,” Hiya CEO Alex Algard said in a press release. “Now less than one in two phone calls is answered. At the same time, there’s been a significant increase in pick up rate for calls that are identified as legitimate businesses. This shows that trust in who is on the other end of the phone is absolutely paramount to consumers these days.”
The press release did not detail the firm’s methodology other than to say its findings are based on “Hiya’s analysis.” It’s also worth noting that the conditions described in the report seem complementary to the company’s products.
Here are highlights from the State of the State of the Phone Call Report.
Average calls per month:
- On average, people make and receive a total of 178 calls per month
- Of those 178 total calls, 93 are calls received and 85 are calls made
- Of those calls, 46 of them are from numbers “not saved to contacts”
Average incoming call pick-up rates:
- 48% of all calls received are answered
- 71% of calling numbers that are “saved in contacts” are answered
- 69% of calls identified with a business name are answered
- 26% of unidentified calls are answered
- 11% of calls identified as spam are answered
Typical duration of phone calls:
- Spam calls: 12 seconds
- Unidentified calls: 31 seconds
- Identified calls from businesses: 2 minutes and 53 seconds
- Calls from a user’s contact list: 5 minutes and 9 seconds
Top business industries calling mobile phones ranked in order of total call volume:
- Health Care: doctor’s offices, hospitals, pharmacies
- Financial Services: banks, credit unions, debt collectors
- Insurance: home, life, health, auto
- Government: schools, government agencies
- Automotive: car dealerships, car repair
Unwanted robocall stats and spam trends for the first half of the year :
- Total number of robocalls placed in first half of 2019: 25.3 Billion
- Growth in Robocalls year over year: 128%
- Average number of monthly unwanted calls received per person: 16