A new study from Forrester
Research indicates that an increasing number of U.S. households are getting rid of their
traditional wired phones and going all-cellphone. Forrester says as of the end of last year, 8% of U.S.
households have gone this route, up from 5% in 2004, and more are expected to do so as this year passes. (The
Wireless Report's own Brian White is one of these folks.)
Of course, the main reason why is that cellphone service is much less expensive than traditional landline service; plus, you can take your home phone number everywhere with your cellphone. In addition, more people are accessing the Internet via a broadband connection, so naturally dial-up along with DSL services are beginning to dry up.
The only real drawback to this is that if you find yourself in a location where you can't get a signal to make or receive a call, that can make things a bit difficult. But cellphone coverage is improving every day, and the dead zones are decreasing.
For many people, making the switch to all-cellphone may be disconcerting, only because we've been using landline phones all of our lives and it's tough going from something you've always known to a brand new environment. But a lot more people are doing it, and the transition doesn't seem to be as tough as it might seem. Plus, they're saving a lot of money, and that's not a bad thing, either.
1. My wife and I have done the cellphone only thing for almost 4 years, and it's been great. I still have access to landlines at work for reliability and it's saved us money. It got easier when cable modems became an option for internet access.
Posted at 2:24PM on Apr 2nd 2006 by bill