Monday, May 11, 2009

USA: One in five homes has abandoned landlines and is exclusively using wireless

[AFP] One in five US homes has abandoned landlines and is exclusively using wireless phones, according to a survey released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The survey by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) found that during the second half of 2008, 20.2 percent of US homes had only wireless telephones.

That was an increase of 2.7 percentage points over the first half of 2008, the NCHS said, and the largest six-month increase since it began asking about wireless-only households in 2003.

The survey also found that 1.9 percent of US households had no telephone service at all, neither wireless nor landline, accounting for nearly four million adults and two million children.

It said 33.1 percent of adults aged 18-24 lived in households with only wireless telephones with the figure rising to 41.5 percent among adults aged 25-29.

The number decreased for those over the age of 30 with 21.6 percent of adults aged 30-44 living in households with only wireless telephones, 11.6 percent of adults aged 45-64 and 3.3 percent of adults aged 65 and older.

The NCHS collects the data on wireless and landline telephone service in a bid to ensure that the results of its health surveys are not skewed by ignoring wireless-only households.

More US homes cutting landline phones

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