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Americans Spending More on Cell Phones than Landlines

by Terrence O'Brien on January 23, 2009 at 08:15 AM

Americans Spend More on Cell Phones than Landlines
The writing is on the wall for landline based phones. We've been heralding their demise since Switched launched.

Every time a new study is released on the number of cell phones vs. landlines in the U.S., the number of people who prefer or rely solely on cell phones creeps up and the number of landlines slips slowly, pushing the idea of a "home phone" towards the dustbin of history.

According to the latest statistics out of the Department of Labor, average annual household spending on cell phones has surpassed that of landlines for the first time. Annual spending "per consumer unit" for cell phones increased from $210 in 2001 to $608 in 2007. In the same period, spending on landline phones decreased from $686 to $482.
The increase in spending probably isn't entirely due to people ditching landlines in favor of cell phones, however. The rising demand for data plans for iPhones, BlackBerrys, and other smart phones likely helped push the average annual spending on cell phone service past that of traditional wired handsets. We're still looking forward to the day when cell phone service is reliable and strong enough that we can cut the tether in our basement apartment entirely. But -- at least for the time being -- we won't be joining the increasing number of people going mobile only. [From: Yahoo! News]
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Unfortunately, we didn't have enough room at our desks for a microwave. That meant braving the common area (full of coworkers!) to heat up our left over rice and beans

Tags: landline, prepaid, research, statistics, survey

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