More and more homes ditching landlines

In these tough economic times — see, you can start any article off with that line nowadays — families are looking to cut costs wherever they can. We’ve mentioned, on multiple occasions, how prepaid wireless can help a family reduce their spending on communications costs. Another measure they can take is to use cell phones only and ditch the now-redundant landline. It seems many are taking that step. According to an AP report, landline only households have grown to 18 percent. This is in addition to the 13 percent of households which have landlines, but place and receive the majority of their calls via cell phones.

Stephen Blumberg, senior scientist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an author of the report, said there is no evidence the trend is slowing. He said the recession may fuel it further, especially as cell phone prices drop and their coverage and features improve.

“There’s clearly a reason to give up a landline phone if budgets are tight,” he said in an interview. “Given the current economic environment, I’d not be surprised to see more and more people give up their landline phones for economic reasons.”

The growth in landline-only is considerable. It was just 7 percent three years ago, in 2005, and was 16 percent in the second half of 2007. Not only is a recession spiking the number, but also the number of young people moving into their own homes. I know few 20-somethings that have a landline. This is backed up by another survey finding: 34 percent of renters are cell-only, while just 9 percent of home owners are.

Have you ditched your landline yet?

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One Response

1. Darryl Says
   

   Cell only is not always the best option. What if you can’t pay a bill on time and have to wait for days at a time before you can get your cell turned back on. A landline is good for backup.

   
   Posted on December 18th, 2008 at 10:08 am

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