A new study posted on and discussed on communication and general newsgroups shows that households are moving away from traditional landlines for mobile phones. Preliminary results from the USA’s National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) covering the second half of last year, indicates that the number of American homes with only wireless telephones continues to grow. According to a new report by National Center for Health Statistics ( part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), in the last half of 2009, nearly 25% of U.S. homes abandoned land lines and use only a cellphone. That is up 1.8 percentage points since the first half of 2009.
Two separate reports paint quite a picture of how the way Americans communicate has changed — with dramatic implications for how business communications will be done in the future, as well., The New York Times also reports that while almost 90 percent of households in the United States now have a cell phone, the growth in voice minutes used has stalled in favor of data communications.
This move away from traditional landline phones has had a far-reaching effect. ISPs are not the only ones affected, either. Polling firms and government agencies that gather data also face additional challenges as a result of the decrease in landlines. Additionally, 911 service providers have had to find additional options when it comes to locating people who are in need of help.
One of the odder bits of data mined by the NCHS, however, claims that binge drinking is double the rate in wireless-only households compared to those with fixed lines, with 34.5% of wireless phone users having more than five drinks in one day, compared to 18.7% of landline users. The data collected from surveys of 21,375 households, included 40,619 civilian adults and 14,984 children under the age of 18.
