Telecom Milestone: More Cellphone-Only Than Landline-Only Households

Telecom Milestone: More Cellphone-Only Than Landline-Only Households

Mediamark Research Analysis Highlights Demographics Driving Trend

The United States has passed a milestone in telecommunications history: the percentage of Americans in cellphone-only households now exceeds the percentage of people living in landline-only households, according to Mediamark Research Inc. This is one of the key findings in The Birth of a Cellular Nation, a newly released MRI white paper.

MRI conducts approximately 26,000 in-home, in-person interviews yearly with U.S. adults, collecting data in two “waves” of interviews with 13,000 respondents.

The landline-only population has been larger than the cell-only population since MRI first began measuring cell phone use in 2000. This remained true up through the company’s survey wave fielded from March-October 2006; in that survey period, the cell-only population was 12.4% of the population, compared to 14.5% who were landline-only. In the most current wave (fielded from September 2006-April 2007), those positions were reversed, with the cell-only segment rising to 14.0%, and the landline-only population dropping to 12.3%.

“This milestone is a consequence of two trends—a steepening decline since 2000 in the percentage of households with any landline, accompanied by a rapid rise in the number of households with at least one cellphone,” said Andrew Arthur, Vice President of MRI’s Market Solutions division and the author of Birth of a Cell Phone Nation. “The MRI data show that 84.5% of people now have now have landlines in their households, while 86.2% now have at least one cellphone.”

Young consumers, particularly those who live on their own, dominate the burgeoning cell-only population. “Logic would suggest that single-person households have less need for a landline. And, of course, fewer income-earners to pay for one,” said Arthur. ”The economic and practical realities faced by people living alone tend to force a choice between the two technologies and the numbers are particularly striking at the young end of the spectrum. 57.1% of 18-24 year-olds who live in single-person households are now cell-only, making them more than 4 times as likely to be cell-only as the average adult.”

To obtain a copy of Birth of a Cell Phone Nation, please to go to http://www.mediamark.com/showcontent.aspx?content=~/MRI_Library/001_ White_Papers.xhtml (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser’s address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

About MRI…

Founded in 1979, MRI interviews approximately 26,000 U.S. adults in their homes each year, asking about their use of media, their consumption of products and their lifestyles and attitudes.

MRI is the country’s leading provider of magazine audience and multimedia research data via its Survey of the American Consumer and other studies. The company’s 26,000 in-home interviews each year represent the biggest survey of its kind.

MRI is part of GfK Group AG, Nuremberg, Germany. For more information, please visit http://www.mediamark.com/

Contacts

MRI
Anne Marie Kelly, 212-884-9204