When Oakland Local decided to go mobile, the first thing we wanted to know was what kinds of mobile phones do people in Oakland have, and how are they using them?

Almost every adult in Oakland has a cell phone. Most of these phones can do far more than just voice calls - but their capabilities, and how people use them, vary widely.

So in order to figure out what kinds of mobile services we should offer, last summer Oakland Local conducted in-person surveys with 84 cell phone users in various parts of town.

Here's what our survey respondents told us about their phones and what this means as we develop our mobile strategy.

Which kinds of phones are Oaklanders using?

So far, smartphones are definitely not the norm in most of Oakland. Smartphones have fully-featured web browsers comparable to a computer's browser, the ability to run "app" software and (increasingly) large touch screens.

As of late August 2010, only 30 percent of survey respondents relied on smartphones. The vast majority of Oakland mobile users (70 percent) rely on simpler, less costly "feature phones." But this category spans a broad range: from simple phones that only do voice calls, text messaging and photos to fairly sophisticated devices that support web browsing (often through a simplified "microbrowser"), e-mail, maps, social media and more.

Feature phones tend to cost far less per month to use, and they're often available on pay-as-you-go or month-to-month contracts, making it easier for users to manage their budget. Smartphones generally cost at least $90 per month, and carriers almost always require a two-year contract. So while Oakland's tough economy continues, feature phones will likely remain popular here.

This is the main, but not the only, reason why we chose to focus Oakland Local's mobile survey primarily on serving feature phones. We're not joining the news media herd's rush to develop smartphone apps. Feature phones represent the lion's share of the local mobile market. Plus, they're also the right way to serve people who have phones and use them a lot, but who don't have much money or time to spare.

More details about mobile phones in Oakland:

• MetroPCS is by far the most popular wireless carrier in Oakland, used by 48 percent of respondents. (AT&T, 23 percent; T-Mobile, 12 percent; Verizon, 9 percent; Sprint and Tracfone, 4 percent each.)
• Fifty percent of respondents had owned their current phone for less than six months at the time of the survey.
• Fifty-one percent of respondents have no broadband access (3G or WiFi) from their phone. They surfed the web and performed other activities via the carrier's slower "1X" data networks, which often makes for a slow and frustrating (but affordable) mobile online experience.
• However, 42 percent of mobile users did report having mobile broadband access - including many WiFi-enabled feature phones. (It's likely that over the next year most inexpensive feature phones will at least have access to 3G data networks, so this situation should improve quickly.)

Mobile phone bills

More than half (51 percent) of all survey respondents had month-to-month deals with their wireless carriers - and the MetroPCS $40/month for unlimited voice, text, and web access is especially popular. Month-to-month phone plans were widely cited as a way to control costs and increase flexibility.

Among mobile users with wireless contracts, 26 percent have individual contracts and 19 percent are on multiple-phone family plans. Only 4 percent reported using prepaid phones.

How much do they pay?

Average monthly cost-per-phone reported by survey respondents:

• $20-$50: 37 percent
• $51-$80: 39 percent
• $81-$110: 14 percent
• $110+: $10 percent

How Oaklanders use their mobile phones

Here's how often Oaklanders do some common activities (other than voice calls) on their mobile phones:

Text messaging (SMS):

• Daily: 88 percent
• Most days: 8 percent
• Sometimes: 0 percent
• Rarely: 4 percent
• Never: 0 percent

Mobile web browsing:

• Daily: 66 percent
• Most days: 14 percent
• Sometimes: 4 percent
• Rarely: 11 percent
• Never: 5 percent

E-mail:

• Daily: 55 percent
• Most days: 6 percent
• Sometimes: 5 percent
• Rarely: 26 percent
• Never: 8 percent

Mobile maps or navigation:

• Daily: 54 percent
• Most days: 19 percent
• Sometimes: 6 percent
• Rarely: 16 percent
• Never: 5 percent

What's especially interesting here is that 80 percent of Oakland's mobile users report browsing the web from their phones daily or most days, even though 51 percent say they have no broadband access from their phones. This indicates a remarkable dedication to mobile web access in Oakland - people here persist doing it frequently, even on devices and networks that make mobile web browsing slow and difficult.

Demographics of survey respondents

Here is some information about the people we surveyed. Note that this was pretty random. Our survey takers approached people in person in various parts of town, and sought variety in the types of subjects they surveyed.

Age:

• 19-25: 26  percent
• 26-35: 51 percent
• 36-50: 19 percent
• 51+: 4 percent

Gender:

• Female: 51 percent
• Male: 49 percent

Ethnicity:

• African-American: 50 percent
• White/Caucasian: 30 percent
• Hispanic/Latino: 8 percent
• Asian-American: 6 percent
• Mixed: 6 percent

Oakland neighborhood of residence:

• East Oakland/Fruitvale/Dimond: 31 percent
• North Oakland: 31 percent
• Lake Merritt: 22 percent
• West Oakland: 9 percent
• Downtown/Uptown: 7 percent

Annual household income:

• Under $25K: 54 percent
• $25-49K: 17 percent
• $50-74K: 14 percent
• $75-100K: 5 percent
• Over $100K: 10 percent

How important are cells phone in Oakland?

We asked survey participants how important their cell phones are to their daily life. Here's what they reported:

• Essential: 62 percent
• Pretty important: 25 percent
• Useful, but not crucial: 13 percent
• Not important at all: 0 percent

Any communication/media tool that nearly 90 percent of users in a community rate as essential or pretty important to their daily lives is definitely a platform that anyone who wishes to inform or engage that community should be using. Expect this trend of importance to daily life to continue.

Mobile phones and the digital divide in Oakland

Mobile phones are also a key tool for bridging the "digital divide" (the impaired access to online opportunities, services and resources, which often affects people of color and people with lower incomes).

In many countries, mobile phones are crucial for primary Internet access because most people do not have easy, reliable access to the net via computer. But our survey found that in Oakland, most mobile phone users (94 percent) do have easy, reliable access to the net via computer - at home, school, work or the library.

So in this city, the digital divide is more about who gets to have a speedy, high-quality mobile online experience - and who doesn't. It's also about how people use the Internet differently on computers versus mobile phones or tablets.

It appears that in Oakland, for now, mobile net access is a complement to (not a replacement for) computer-based net access. For Oakland Local this means that for now, we're viewing mobile access to our content as a tool that supplements our community's computer-based experience of our site.

Perhaps more importantly, mobile can be a powerful way for Oakland Local to engage more people around the city.

Sharing information (via text, e-mail, social media, instant messaging, etc.) is one of the most popular things that people everywhere do with their mobile phones - and Oakland is no exception. If the first time someone hears about Oakland Local is a link that a friend sends them via text message, or posts on Facebook, we want to make sure that works well the first time - even for someone checking it out on a pretty cheap, simple cell phone.

In short, we view mobile devices as an increasingly crucial way to easily expand how much of Oakland we reach - and how much of Oakland can reach back to us easily.

Over time, it's possible that more Oaklanders might come to rely exclusively on their mobile devices for Internet access. This could happen if the monthly costs and contract requirements for mobile broadband drop significantly. Our data show that people in Oakland already love to go online from their phones, even under challenging conditions.

My sense from talking with respondents was that if they could get faster access on better mobile devices for just a little more money per month and no contract obligation, and if that access included tethering for devices such as laptops, then many might be tempted to cancel or scale back their home "wired" broadband service in order to afford a mobile service upgrade

That might happen someday. But for now, wireless carriers appear to be far more interested in getting more people to spend $90 or more per month for mobile broadband that does not include tethering, under a two-year contract. Wireless carriers seem far less interested in expanding mobile broadband service for people who can only pay, say, $80 per month total, preferably with tethering and no contract.