A European survey into the average time mobile phone users spend talking on their phones was topped by Turkey.

According to figures from 2016’s third quarter, Turks spend an average of seven hours and 16 minutes (436 minutes) per month chatting, compared to four hours and 17 minutes (257 minutes) for the rest of Europe.

The survey, conducted by Ajans Press, covered the period July to September of this year. Its research results found that at in March 2016, 66 million Turks were 3G subscribers. However, by September, increasing numbers were transferring over to 4.5G, reportedly now used by 45.7 million people in Turkey.

According to the survey, the number one complaint Turkish mobile network providers received from their customers was about their access to the internet.

While the upgrade to 4.5G is helping to improve internet experience for end users, making connectivity faster and more efficient, problems beyond network providers’ control exist. Chief among these are the Turkish government’s regular efforts to block access to social media sites and slowing the internet down. The most recent incident came last week, when access to Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp were blocked at the same time a video by Daesh, purportedly showing two Turkish soldiers in Iraq being burned alive, went viral worldwide.

In November, while Prime Minister Binali Yildirm did not directly confirm such blocks were in place, he did acknowledge that “from time to time for security reasons we can use such measures”.

Main photo © dolgachov