• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 12, 2006

For most consumers, a cell phone is still just a phone. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. wireless subscribers and customers didn't use any data services outside of text-messaging during the third quarter of this year, according to a new study.

Cost is one of the main factors keeping consumers from signing up for mobile entertainment services in greater numbers, according to the latest wireless consumer entertainment survey of teens and adults by technology research firm IDC. The biggest complaint of 38.5% of mobile consumers was that data services are "too expensive."

But mobile users aren't necessarily eager to accept ads in exchange for lower bills. In the survey, consumers were asked to indicate how willing they would be to accept three ads a day in return for half-priced data services or content.

Rating on a scale from one (very willing) to seven (very unwilling), the average was 2.45. Only 6% of respondents said they were "very willing" to accept advertising in return for lower service costs. About 16% indicated at least some openness to advertising.

"It's kind of a Catch-22," said Lewis Ward, research manager for IDC's Mobile Consumers Services: Entertainment program, of the aversion to mobile ads despite complaints about high data costs. Younger mobile users were generally more receptive to mobile ads than older ones, said Ward.

Mobile messaging remains by far the most popular data service. Nearly half of those surveyed said they had sent or received at least one SMS message in the third quarter, as SMS subscription plans have crossed the 50% mark. About a quarter of all SMS messages were text alerts that subscribers received for news, sports and other updates.

About one-fifth of mobile consumers bought at least one ringtone, and about 10% bought a wallpaper or game. Young users and those with advanced mobile devices had the highest adoption rates for most types of wireless entertainment, including music and video offerings. The IDC study was based on a survey of 2,506 U.S. teenage and adult mobile users conducted in August 2006.