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One in Six US Households Ditch Landlines for Mobiles
A study by Nielsen Mobile has shown that 20 million US households (c.17%) are without landlines and rely solely on mobile phones for their home telecommunications.
The research suggests that the figure could leap to as many as one in five US households wireless-only by the end of 2008.
Trends show that:- Of those who have substituted their landlines for mobiles, 59% have incomes of $40,000 or less.
- Smaller households with just one or two residents are more likely to make the switch.
- Nearly a third (31%) of those who moved to mobile-only communications had recently moved home.
'As wireless network quality improves and unlimited calling becomes increasingly pervasive, we expect the trend toward wireless substitution to continue,' said Alison LeBreton, VP of Client Services for Nielsen Mobile. 'In a tightening economy every dollar counts and consumers are more and more comfortable with the idea of ditching their landline connection.'
However, around ten percent of landline phone customers have experimented with wireless-only in their household, but then returned to a landline service. Nielsen reports that needing a landline for another service (security system, satellite TV, pay-per-view, fax machine, etc) is the primary reason people switch back.
Last autumn, Nielsen re-branded its Telephia unit as Nielsen Mobile to offer syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets.
Web site: www.nielsenmobile.com .
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