Benefits of mobile telephones for construction contractors in the United Kingdom

Mobile telephones have been widely used for communication purposes over the last ten to fifteen years. The construction industry is increasingly using mobile telephones in the day to day execution of construction projects. To date, there is little information in the public domain about the contribution mobile telephones make to project performance. This paper presents findings from research undertaken to quantify the benefits of mobile telephones to construction contractors in the United Kingdom. The research employed a case study research strategy. The case was a large construction contractor (annual turnover in excess of £350m) whose portfolio of work was divided into four main sectors: utility services, highway services, rail services and infrastructure services. Data about mobile telephone call events were carefully collected from inside informants using a survey sheet. The data comprised of three dependent variables: duration of telephone call, cost implications and time implications; and two independent variables: sector and source/destination of call. The data were analysed following standard analysis of variance procedures. The results showed that even though there were variations from sector to sector and source/destination to source/destination, it could generally be said that mobile telephones were of great benefit to the construction contractor (for example the estimated cost saving associated with mobile telephones was over £4,000 per person per week). Although this study was based on one contractor, it is argued that the results provide a good insight into the benefits of mobile telephones for construction contractors in the United Kingdom.