A new study shows that households are moving away from traditional landlines for mobile phones. As cell phones become smarter and capable of more and more things, the need for a landline is declining.
In the beginning of 2006, only 11% of households actually had cell phones. How times have changed. Today, only 15% of households have landlines and no cell phones. That’s quite the leap in less than 4 years, isn’t it? The ramifications of higher cell phone adoption rates have hurt telco profits in a big way. Mobile penetration has also changed the way 911 services locate people who call them for help. Still, while some police departments now respond to text messages, it seems that not every help service has not been up to speed. The world is going mobile, why haven’t others caught up?
To no surprise, the younger generation leads the way when it comes to cellphone-only households. Half of which fall between the 25-29 age range. When it comes to people 65 and older, things change drastically. Only 1 in 20 of said people rely solely on mobile phones. So this is definitely generational, and I don’t think many doubted that fact. When you have a device that is with you all the time, why would you use it any less if you’re sitting on the couch at your house.?
What the report really seems to be saying is that landlines are for old people. Well, not really. But when it comes to being connected, people are going to mobile phones. Families that aren’t locked into their own homes everyday are going to need to communicate with family members when they are out and about, so mobile phones are obviously the way to go. Given the way text messaging has gotten hold of people, minutes are less of an issue, especially when many carriers offer a free calling to their own carrier’s users – especially with something like T-Mobile’s MyFaves option. With services like these in place, it makes landlines look like just another monthly bill that just isn’t worth the money.
Here are some more findings in the report.
- 63 percent of adults living with an unrelated adult but without children had only cells, nearly four times the rate for related adults without children.
- More than 4 in 10 renters had only cells, about triple the rate for homeowners.
- 15 percent of adults in the Northeast had only cell phones, while the figure for those in other parts of the country ranged from 22 to 26 percent.
- 30 percent of Hispanics had only mobile phones, compared with 25 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 21 percent of non-Hispanic whites.
The data was compiled by the National Health Interview Survey, which is conducted by the CDC. The latest survey involved in-person interviews with members of 21,375 households conducted from July through December 2009.
[Via: AssociatedPress]