June 13, 2006

Hurricane Katrina may have substantially changed communications patterns in Gulf Coast cities such as Houston and New Orleans, a new mobile usage report by Telephia concludes.

Mobile phone use surged after Hurricane Katrina plowed through the Gulf Coast last year, damaging phone lines in New Orleans and elsewhere.

A Telephia survey found that high use of mobile phones continues nearly a year after the storm hit.

Average monthly wireless use in the Houston and New Orleans metropolitan areas jumped by more than 250 minutes between the first quarter of 2005 and 2006’s first quarter.

More than 100,000 Katrina refugees ended up in Houston, which is about 350 miles away from the Big Easy.

Houston topped the list of U.S. metropolitan areas in minutes used per month during the first quarter, at about 1,100 minutes per wireless user.

Mobile subscribers in New Orleans used nearly five hours more talk time, on average, than they did in the first quarter of 2005, landing at about 1,070 minutes per month.

“This may reflect the ongoing disruption that many residents of these cities still face, but also suggests a more lasting change in consumer usage patterns born out of the hurricane experience,” said Tamara Gaffney, product director for Telephia.

Other high-use cities included in the report were Daytona Beach, Fla.; Toledo, Ohio; Atlanta; and Mobile, Ala.

The national average for minutes used per month in the first quarter of 2006 was 718 minutes, which is 6 percent higher than the same period last year.

Source: RCR