20 Pct of Mobile Users Dropping Landlines

A new survey from In-Stat reports that 20 percent of respondents who use wireless phone service plan to drop traditional landline phone service.

A survey released today by research firm In-Stat finds that 20 percent of respondents who use wireless voice service plan to drop their traditional landline telephone service. The survey found that long-distance service has been particularly impacted by the widespread adoption of wireless telephones, with nearly hald the study’s respondents saying they had decreased landline long-distance usage, with the average decrease being some 60 percent.

The report, titled Cutting the Cord: Consumer Wireline Erosion, also found wireless usage is growing faster than wireline usage, especially in the 18 to 24 year-old market segment. “Compared to 2004 survey results, wireless has increased from one-quarter of home phone minutes to nearly one-third in 2005,” said Bryan Van Dussen, a research director with In-Stat. “With this increase in wireless usage comes an increased displacement of landline use.”

To conduct the study, In-stat randomly surveyed an unspecified number of U.S. residents owning a home telephone. Not surprisingly, it found different segments of survey respondents were more inclined to ditch their wireline service than others. Survey respondents who reported they earned less than $50,000 a year were more apt to cut their landline telephone service, as well as members of the youth market who (presumably) have less loyalty to traditional phone service, having experienced a greater proportion of their consumer lifetimes with reliable wireless service.