Despite the growing availability of Internet access on mobile phones, users are still underwhelmed by the overall experience.

According to a survey of 1,500 consumers by research group TNS, 73% of people do not take advantage of mobile Internet even when they have the facility to do so.

Among the reasons cited by respondents who have used the service were: frustration at slow loading pages (38%); problems with navigating websites from a phone or PDA (27%); and websites being completely unavailable (25%).

However, the survey, commissioned by web service provider Hostway, also found that if these problems could be remedied, people would be far more inclined to use the Internet on the move. Of those surveyed, 90% said that they would use mobile Internet if they could be assured that pages would load faster and if they did not incur high charges from their mobile operator. A large majority of respondents (71%) said that they would access their email on the move providing it was fast and cheap, and almost half (47%) said that they would use their mobile to access news and sports sites.

Hostway says that organisations need to be much more aware of the different requirements that users have when accessing a site from a mobile device. It believes that the findings highlight a need for new standards for developing mobile-friendly websites.