Minorities most active on mobile phones

African-Americans and Hispanics talk and text on mobile phones significantly more than their white counterparts, according to the Nielsen Company.

The results correlate with an earlier Pew survey that found minorities are more likely to use their smartphones to access the Web than whites. The latest data shows minorities are generally more likely to use mobile devices to communicate, meaning any proposals targeting wireless communications may disproportionately affect black and Hispanic Americans.

African-Americans talk on their cell phones an average of 1,300 minutes per month, more than twice the 647 minutes averaged by whites. Hispanics were next, at 826 minutes per month, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders at 692 minutes per month. Blacks and Hispanics were also the most like to send and receive text messages, averaging 780 and 767 per month respectively.

When it comes to texting, race or ethnicity takes a back seat to age. Teenagers average a whopping 2,779 text messages a month, while 18- to 24-year-olds send or receive 1,299 on average. People between the ages of 25 and 35 average just under 600 text messages per month. The variance among age groups for voice minutes used was significantly less.

Nielsen also found that women talk on their mobile phones 22 percent more on average than men and send or receive 601 monthly text messages versus 447 for the average American male. The results were calculated by Nielsen using the mobile phone bills of 60,000 subscribers between April 2009 and March 2010.