Daily Research News Online no. 2773 - More Consumers Doing Without Landlines

More Consumers Doing Without Landlines

December 1 2003

In the wake of new legislation allowing the transfer of landline numbers to wireless carriers, MetaFacts Inc. has published figures from its Technology User Profile survey (TUP) to illustrate how more US homeowners are giving up on standard landlines. The rise is most rapid in homes with one person, where the percentage without a landline has more than doubled in the last year.

The survey suggests that the number of PC-using homes in the US without a standard landline (as opposed to cable, for example) has increased by 60% (from 2.0m to 2.3m) since 2002. The percentage without any telephone line grew from 2.4% in 2002 to 3.5% in 2003. Within homes with one person, growth was even faster, rising from 2.3% in 2002 to 5% in 2003.

Number of Telephone Lines in Home
(households with Home PCs)

	2001	2002	2003
No Phone Line	0.3%	2.4%	3.5%
One Phone Line	72.9%	67.0%	68.3%
Two Phone Lines	23.8%	26.5%	23.2%
Three or More	2.9%	4.1%	5.0%

Source: MetaFacts, Inc. - Technology User Profile - 2003 and 2002

Normal landlines face more than one competitor. Internet cable subscriptions rose more than 17% in 2002, according to other research from MetaFacts, while cellphone providers are moving to offer more attractive 'Free' anytime minute packages like T-Mobile's regional airtime package, which includes 3,000 anytime minutes a month for under $50. Both of these have put pressure on traditional Bell companies to provide more competitive calling packages to the growing number of mobile and broadband consumers, according to Dan Ness, Principal Analyst at MetaFacts.

MetaFacts Inc surveyed 11,175 respondents for the 2003 Technology User Profile survey, which reports on over 250 questions.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.