back to article Is right! Ofcom says Scousers enjoy a natter on the phone compared to southern blerts

Liverpool is the most gobby verbal region in the UK, according to Ofcom – something prime minister Boris Johnson would no doubt have confirmed had he visited the city today.* In the regulator's Mobile Matters report (PDF), which analysed the phone habits of 150,000 people between 1 January and 31 March 2019, Liverpudlians were …

  1. OssianScotland

    You can speak to people on a mobile? Who'ld a thunk it?

  2. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Some 44 per cent of people used less than 500MB of mobile data per month

    Thats weird, I use about 1GB a month but everyone I know has told me they have 20-30GB, I assume that means most of them are being overcharged

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I assume that means most of them are being overcharged

      Nah. Their phones just send 19.5-29.5G of facebook "telemetry" a month all by themselves.

      1. JetSetJim

        Re: I assume that means most of them are being overcharged

        Not forgetting the underlying OS telemetry. iOS seems to run a fair whack of under the hood data, and I'm sure there's at least a dribble of data out from Android. First phone for eldest rugrat had limited data and was always getting eaten up rather rapidly - a little digging found "System services" using it all up, with no hint of how to stop it

        1. Warm Braw

          Re: I assume that means most of them are being overcharged

          I put a second, PAYG, SIM in my (Android) phone for "not spot" coverage, with data turned off on that SIM. Within a couple of days I'd had a message from the network saying that the modest free data allocation (around 50MB) of the data-disabled SIM had been exhausted. Still trying to get to the bottom of that one.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Some 44 per cent of people used less than 500MB of mobile data per month

      It's basically streaming video.

      Netflix/YouTube/etc while you sit on public transport can easily use 500MB+/day

    3. BrownishMonstr

      Re: Some 44 per cent of people used less than 500MB of mobile data per month

      I'm using it for Netflix at work and the times the wifi is shit but I can't be arsed fixing it.

  3. BRYN

    he made it to Wirral:-

    https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/breaking-boris-johnson-leo-varadkar-17062942?fbclid=IwAR3UXJG5bmZc1l9SJCNkRXsePZ63fdPXYnAUMvTzy1k2g5gaXIPAKHW8MWY

    He is still an eejit

    1. JetSetJim
      Facepalm

      thanks for the Facebook CLick ID in the URL you posted. It really makes me want to click on the link

    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Wirral - The Leisure Peninsula™

  4. Alister

    I wonder if the Mayor of Rotherham is called Steve Liverpool?

    Edit: Nope, Councillor Jenny Andrews, apparently.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Is she possibly a bit of a saint, this Jenny?

  5. Blockchain commentard

    So, young'uns use WhatsApp to order drugs rather than phone for them. Kids nowadays. Huh.

    1. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

      So, young'uns use WhatsApp to order drugs rather than phone for them. Kids nowadays. Huh.

      Can imagine the convo :

      Half a gram of this, a gram of that, and hold the chavs. (In teenspeak, of course).

  6. Commswonk

    I Hope This Isn't True...

    previous studies have also showed that younger people find making calls a little daunting, and prefer to use messaging services such as WhatsApp.

    ...because if it is the implications border on the terrifying.

    OK; I have been retired for a few years but looking back I can remember just how productive a proper telephone conversation can be. Work / business 'phone calls obviously have a professional purpose, but that does not prevent the persons involved establishing a good working personal relationship at the same time. (No improper conclusions should be drawn from that.)

    Are we raising children in such a way that they will be unable to communicate properly in a work environment?

    <shakes head>

    1. BrownishMonstr

      Re: I Hope This Isn't True...

      I personally dislike phone calls. I can get back to messages on my own time, which is unsocially never.

      I also find the longer the phone call goes, the ever increasing chance I'll zone out* without realising it and I'll miss the important stuff. If it's longer than 15 seconds then please email me.

      *I am a bit of a dick head, or a lot in my honest opinion, so this could explain me zoning out mid conversation. That said, I have zoned out of books, films (the part where M dies in Bond and I only realised after rewatching it), and even real life (only realise when people mention something and even though I was there I couldn't remember it, despite that it would be something I'll remember).

      1. heyrick Silver badge

        Re: I Hope This Isn't True...

        Upvote because you're not a dick head. I'm not so different.

        Thing is, when people commit to sending you a message, they often keep their message short and sweet.

        But on the phone. Oh my god. Um err well um well err uh.

        I nearly lost a job when I had to admit to a boss that I had no idea what she said in her for minute phone call, instead observing that she ummed over sixty times. That's statistically once every four seconds. I wonder if she knew she sucked on the phone? It's not hard to jot down some notes so the call can be as precise as a typed request.

        It um would um certainly um um make um my life um a lot um easier um than um trying to um piece together um fragments um of um a sentence um.

    2. doublelayer Silver badge

      Re: I Hope This Isn't True...

      As a relatively young person (I have no problem making and receiving calls), I think the opinion of those who don't like to make calls is concern that the person they are calling will not appreciate the call because they are busy or unavailable. I'm not saying this makes sense; we all have a vibrate mode on our phones for a reason. But that's the reasoning I've heard from some people and those people tend not to make calls very often.

  7. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
    Happy

    So good national stereotypes then...

    The Scousers are duckin' an' divin' bobbin' and weavin' being all gobby and chatting away. While the dour folk of Yorkshire value their words and don't part with them lightly.

    1. PhilipN Silver badge

      Re: So good national stereotypes then...

      Gorra be the delivery and the accent. Know what I mean, like?

      Whereas there's no such place as BraDforD. It's Braffa. Saves time.

  8. astounded1

    The Devil Has A Bad Bottle Blond Haircut

    Boris Johnson is actually the devil. Sorry you southern pratts haven't figured that out yet. By the time you do, it shall be far too late for the lot of you.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Poor signals and speeds

    They use wifi only because the speeds are shit and data throughput diabolical.

    Cant OFCOM get it? Oh wait... its Ofcom we are talking about.

    NeXt, they will come up with a survey, sayIng the country doesnt need 5G, since kids and 150,000 people only use wifi at home and minimal data. WIll play nicely into TELCOS HANDS TO not INVEST AND IMPROVE.

  10. HmYiss

    Scousers never STFU...

    ..and other shocking revelations...

  11. James12345
    Facepalm

    Looks like OFCOM have no idea

    I'll admit I'm guessing here, but OFCOM are probably looking purely at voice traffic to establish how long people are using their phone to make "phone calls". All the app based systems that allow someone to use their voice to communicate with another person will be being recorded only as data, not voice.

  12. This post has been deleted by its author

  13. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Joke

    Editor?

    he should put time aside to, at long last, acknowledge the pain he caused as EditorGroper of the Spectator

    icon --> allegedly

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