A new survey reveals the mobile phone user habits of South Africans when traveling abroad.<\/p>\n
According to Travelstart’s<\/a> \u201ccellphones in travel\u201d survey, most South Africans (92%) say the international roaming charges meted out by local network providers are too expensive.<\/p>\n When asked if they activate international roaming when going abroad, a quarter of 4,000 respondents said they are winning the war against expensive roaming fees by purchasing a local sim card at their destination.<\/p>\n As many as 21% said they only connect using free Wi-Fi, while 19% said they activated SMS services only.<\/p>\n A further 7% say they prefer to switch off completely; however, 21% will activate all services when traveling abroad including voice calls, data and text messaging.<\/p>\n The survey also revealed the user patterns of travelers once overseas:<\/p>\n Thirty-one percent of respondents are comfortable using their cellphone to book and pay for flights, according to Travelstart.<\/p>\n Mobile check-ins are marginal with only 2% preferring an airlines mobile site or app over traditional methods such as online check-in (45%), counter check-in (43%), self-service (9%), and curbside (1%).<\/p>\n The amount of passengers who don\u2019t switch their switch cellphones off when they fly (2%), or just engage flight mode for the duration of the trip (28%), also stood out in the survey.<\/p>\n The South African Civil Aviation Authority restricts the use of cellphones in flight, with most local carriers allowing flight mode after takeoff and before landing only; otherwise the devices are required to be switched off completely.<\/p>\n “The issue of mobile phones onboard aircraft is an ongoing pain point for passengers and crew alike; this follows a Travelstart survey run in 2013 which found that up to 15 phones are left on during every flight,” Travelstart said.<\/p>\n\n
More on mobile phones and air travel<\/h3>\n