Consumers ditching land-line phones

CONSUMERS DITCHING LAND-LINE PHONES
Traditional land-line phones, once the bedrock of communications in the USA, are quickly going the way of eight-track tapes as consumers go wireless or choose Internet-based phone calling. According to a report due to be released today by the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly one out of every six homes in the USA — 15.8% — had only wireless telephones during the second half of 2007, up from 6.1% during the same period in 2004. For big carriers such as AT&T and Verizon, America's love fest with wireless is having a dramatic impact on what was once a core business. In New York state, land lines have plummeted 55% since 2000, according to a new report by Sanford C. Bernstein. New Jersey isn't far behind, with a 50% drop-off. States with the fewest land-line losses include Connecticut with 10%, Texas, 20%, and California, 21%. Even so, it won't take long for the other 49 states to catch up to or surpass New York, predicts analyst Craig Moffett, author of the report. "This is a business that is not showing any signs of recovery," he says. The trend is strongest among young adults: 34.5% of people 25-29 years old lived in households with only wireless phones. For those 30-44, the rate drops to 15.5%. It's 2.2% for those 65 and over. The rise of cable telephony is another factor. Big cable TV operators such as Time Warner and Comcast have lured away millions of phone customers with cheap, or even free, VoIP services — short for Voice over Internet Protocol. The report from the National Center for Health Statistics — part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — also found that one out of every eight homes, 13.1%, received all or almost all calls on wireless phones even though there was a land line in the home. If the trends continue, the group said, public opinion surveys on health and other matters conducted only on land-line phones could produce distorted results.
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