Demographics divide wireless carriers

SEATTLE, July 26 (UPI) -- A new survey of mobile-phone users indicates customers are split between carriers along major demographic lines.

"Our data shows that each carrier attracts its own demographic, which correlates with the consumption of mobile content," Seamus McAteer, senior analyst and chief product architect at M:Metrics, said in a news release.

For instance, young males who make extensive use of downloaded mobile games are more than twice as likely to be Sprint customers than any other wireless provider, while Nextel's niche market is populated with the highest percentage of users with annual incomes about $100,000.