NEWS Despite the hundreds of millions of mobiles sold every year and a saturated UK handset market, it seems older people are rather attached to their landlines while young people are quite happy to bin them.
According to a survey by consultants KPMG, 80 per cent of people wouldn't swap their fixed-line phones for a mobile. A new generation is establishing the trend of never having a home phone, the survey found – with 10 per cent of 18-25-year-olds only owning a mobile.
A further 14 per cent said they're looking to get rid of their landlines over the next five years.
While the vast majority of people don't want to let go of their fixed-line phone, revenues are likely to head downwards sharply if the mobile operators decide to start trimming their tariffs.
A recent report from Capgemini and business school Insead showed that consumers would push more voice minutes onto mobiles from fixed lines if their service providers cut their prices.
Research firm Frost and Sullivan found the number of minutes of voice call fell five per cent in 2003.
The operators aren't taking the trend lying down. BT has plunged millions into pushing its 'new wave' services including broadband and has also been the first to launch fixed-to-mobile texting.
Comments
There are 10 comments. Join the discussion
1. Geoffrey Darnton
Many people may still NEED a landline, even in this modern age of telephone or web everything....
Some services, including financial services, that offer their services by telephone will only deal with an identifiable landline.
2. royston
you got to be jokeing! it took me ages to get broadband accross my fixed line like most of the country. so how are these kids useing the net? they are useing mobiles becaude they simply dont like the idea of high phone bills to pay each quarter like the ones their parents had when the kids run up the bills for them when they where liveing at home.......mobiles are just easier thats all......if they dont have the cash then they cant use the mobile except for recieving calls from others. lets face it they want things easyier not findeing it hard to pay fixed line or cable bills every month or quarter. you media people just havent got a clue have you about young peoples behaviour when it comes to mobiles and dads phone bills. borrow a tenner off mum and bobs yer uncle, can use mobile again, simple. but get a place of their own and they want the internet wich they use for chats etc they have to get a fixed line or cable,and a huge phonebill wich they soon find they cant pay or they treat the internet as one big huge chatroom joke, nothing more nothing less. when are you people going to learn, conect the internet through a mobile with a 20 quid fixed rate 24/7 conection like fixed line broadband has now and you will make a bloody fortune from these people, me included as i hate paying line rental for a phone i dont use except for the net. shove it through my mobile for the same price and i will be over the moon,not this realy expensive conection that bt has just introduced. forget it! i aint a company director with loads of dosh! 24.99 a month no conection charges 24/7 anytime on my mobile and i will be a happy man indeed. my home pc through my mobile i mean not this tiny screen on my moby.
3. David Edington
The price of mobile calls in the UK is still to high for most people to even consider dropping their landline. I presently don't use a mobile very often but I would if the prices were more competetive when compared to landline costs. My hope for the future is EasyMobile and VoIP, which may lead to the demise of my landline.
4. Chris Roberts
I never use my landline, and it only remains as a requirement for broadband.
So now I'm paying through the nose for something I don't even use, is this BTs last laugh after losing its leased line monopoly.
5. Neil Kenyon
Won't a lot of people need a landline for decent Internet access - broadband or dial-up? Not everyone can get cable and may not be satisfied with WAP or GSM access.
6. Scamfree landlineuser
You don't get spam SMS sales ads from a landline! Or expensive call-back 0900 scams.
7. Robert Hamadi
When my mobile operator starts offering 3p a minute to the US then I might think about ditching my land line.
Except I won't. I value the redundancy.
8. Dave
Like most people who've posted, I keep my landline only because I need it for broadband access. Why don't telcos offer a 'broadband-only' solution without the extra line-rental expense of a BT landline? At home, I use my mobile instead because it has all my numbers programmed into it, I can send text messages, I can see who's waiting to get through to me and, if I like, while I'm talking I can walk to the shop without losing the signal. And yes, as Royston says, you can with Pay-as-you-go operate it on a shoe-string if money is tight.
9. Steven Farkas
You complain about the cost of the line because you need it for DSL. Duh! The charge for DSL is the cost of internet access not the line. The cost of dial up is only a few dollars less than the cost of DSL when you look at it correctly. You didn't complain then...
Sounds like a bunch of pampered children that need to be spanked and sent to bed.
10. anonymous
Steve Falkes I don't understand your comment-
In the UK we pay about £36 every 3 months for a landline for voice calls to BT. Then if you have ADSL you pay another £18-£25 on top of that. This can be to the phone provider BT or another company.
If you live in a cable area you can just pay for the DSL service without having a phone line or even the cable tv. And the link will be faster.
However the majority of the UK cannot get cable even in cities and towns.
This is why everyone is whining.