What's A Landline? Home Phone Use Declines

More Americans Are Eschewing Their Landlines In Favor Of Cell Phones Survey Says

(AP)  For nearly three in 10 U.S. households, don't even bother trying to call them on a landline phone. They either only have a cell phone or seldom if ever take calls on their traditional phone.

The federal figures, released Wednesday, showed that reliance on cells is continuing to rise at the expense of wired telephones. In the second half of last year, 16 percent of households only had cell phones, while 13 percent also had landlines but got all or nearly all their calls on their cells.

The number of wireless-only households grew by 2 percentage points since the first half of last year. Underscoring the rapid growth, in early 2004 just percent had only cell phones.

Households with cell phones who rarely if ever use their landlines grew by 1 percentage point since the first half of last year.

Such families often either have their landline hooked exclusively to a computer or rely so heavily on their cells that they ignore landline calls because they are probably from telephone solicitors, said Stephen Blumberg, senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an author of the report.

The trends have an important impact on polling organizations, which rely chiefly on calls to random landline phone numbers. Calling cell phone users can be more costly for pollsters, in part because federal law forbids unsolicited calls to cell phones made by computerized dialing systems used heavily by pollsters.

Studies have shown that so far, people who have only cell phones do not give significantly different answers to questions than those who use landlines. Pollsters, though, are under growing pressure to survey the growing number of cell phone users and some already do so.

Also affected are the telephone industry and emergency service providers, who can find it harder to locate people calling from a cell phone.

The survey also found that:

-Low-income people are likelier than the more affluent to have only cell phones.

-Those with only cells tend to be living with unrelated roommates, renters rather than homeowners, and Hispanics and blacks rather than whites.

-About a third of those under age 30 only have cell phones.

-Households with both cell and landline phones who rarely or never get calls on their landlines tend to be better educated and have higher incomes.

-About 2 percent of households reported having no telephones.

The National Health Interview Survey, conducted by the CDC, involved in-person interviews with people in 13,083 households done from July through December of last year.

[prof_s]

I used to hate cellphone use in the USA because my account was charged for incoming as well as outgoing calls, plus I had to pay for 1-800 calls as well as having very limited coverage. I don''t know if it''s still that way in the states, but my sympathies to all of you if it is.

[tburzio]

Those cell towers don''t have back-up power. If a natural disaster strikes, you won''t be able to call out for help...

[cmp271]

I don''t mind poll calls, as long as it is a decent topic. I do not have a cell phone, nor do I want to have the extra expense. If the phone company offered this for free, an extension of my land line I would have it. Also during a black out, how are you planning to re charge your cell phone.

[maba7]

Is there anyone out there who is actually happy with their phone company?
Personally, I currently hate A T & T. Lousy service is all respects, customer service from someone who doesn''t really speak or comprehend English, and incredibly stupid questions. Such as ''How do you know your phone isn''t working? What kind of noise is on the line?'' This after I told them the line was completely dead. Nothing on it, no dial tone, Nada. Some of the answers were even stupider. Call back told me that a technician had found a problem in the phone junction box at my house. First, no technician had been near the box and second, metal thieves had stolen a large amount of phone cable about 3 miles from my house. Second time this happened in last 3 months.
Would go exclusively to cell phones, but area where I live has a lot of sharp little hills and valleys. No cell service for a great many rural areas with that topography. CB radios aren''t reliable in this area either.
I would be happy to have a cell phone company put up a tower on part of my property if I knew how to contact a company that might be interested.
Just for curiosity: rf35-How did the price of gas make your cell phone more expensive? Can you only use the phone while you are driving?

[bks59]

i m a white male, almost 50, own home, white collar professional, only phone is cell phone.

[rf35]

I have given up on cell phone use since gas prices made it too expensive. Until the cell companies can give me voice quality, reliability, and pricing equal to my landline, I will continue to rely on the real phone. Even with Qwest gouging me every month, it''s still far cheaper than any cell plan I''ve seen. And I don''t have to time my calls! Try that when some customer service number makes you hold for 10 minutes waiting for an Indian guy who doesn''t comprehend English, then another 10 minutes for the one that does.

[republic1776]

I have a "dry line" for DSL and use skpe (With a real phone number) for $6.00 as my land line. Why would I pay verizon double

[mswolfestock]

I''m so glad I got away from Verizon - I have always hated them because they were so incompetent in my calling area. I had to make several complaints to my state Public Service Commission because their service was so poor. And anyway I needed to tighten my budget because of insane gas and food prices, so now I''m saving $70 to $100 every month. Getting rid of my land line phones will reduce the clutter in my home, too, and that in itself is priceless, too.

[johnstossel]

I once received a phone call during dinner from a guy selling aluminum siding. I told him that I live in a brick house (I don''t). I then told him that I would ask my friends, neighbors and co-workers about it. I then asked for his home phone number and what time he eats dinner and I would call him then. He hung up on me!!! Did I do something wrong???

[dredre2k]

I''m still waiting on the live Video-phones, but it looks like the wireless company will have those first as well. Telecoms are being left in the dust because they failed to innovate.