The impact of mobile Internet on mobile voice usage: A two-level analysis of mobile communications customers in a GCC country

This paper focuses on interdependencies between mobile Internet (MI) usage and mobile voice (MV) calling patterns among residential customers in one member country of the Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The analyzed data set contains usage data of 10,366 postpaid subscribers of a mobile network operator (MNO) in a GCC country over 25 months from July 2013 to July 2015. The results suggest a complementary MV-MI usage relationship. This relationship is more positive for users who (1) send fewer SMS, (2) are younger, (3) are foreign nationals, (4) use a smartphone, and (5) have a longer tariff tenure. The strength of MV-MI usage association in the GCC country sample is larger than relationships observed in earlier work, which analyzed MNO subscribers in Europe. This suggests that the development trajectory of a country's telecommunications service market moderates the relationship between MI and MV calling use intensity.