BOSTON-Industry research and analyst firm The Yankee Group reported that wireless usage continues to outpace wireline usage in the United States. Citing its own internal surveys, government reports and industry trade group reports, The Yankee Group reported that personal calling using wireless devices exceeded calling on residential landlines even though 35 percent of the U.S. population doesn’t have wireless phones.
The Yankee Group also noted that its own surveys reveal that cell phones displace 60 percent of long distance and 36 percent of local calling from landlines to wireless.
“Wireless substitution for wireline residential phone service is a significant and unstoppable trend,” explained Keith Mallinson, Yankee Group’s Wireless Global Practice leader. “Carriers should aim to capitalize on the movement toward personal communications through one device on an anywhere, anytime basis rather than resist the inevitable shift away from wireline communications.”
Mallinson noted several reasons for the trend, including low prices, in-network calling options that often allow customers to place free calls to other people on the same network, and family plans.
