National Survey Finds 16% of U.S. Homes Now Wireless-Only

The Centre for Disease Control has released the results of its National Health Interview Survey, which includes analysis of wireless substitution in the sample population. The in-person survey is conducted continuously and released every six months, partly to improve the collection of data through telephone surveys and to provide effective estimates of telephone usage, as well as demographic and health-related characteristics of the population that provide an effective representation of the drivers behind wireless substitution (see United States: 17 May 2007: Survey Says More than 25% of Under 30s Are Mobile-Only Users).

Overall, 15.8% of U.S. homes were wireless-only during the data-collection period of July to December 2007, up from 13.6% in the six months before and 12.8% a year earlier, although there were minor methodological changes introduced a year ago to reduce the number of surveys with incomplete information, making direct comparison less viable as the number of households where status was unknown fell from 11% in December 2006 to 1.8% in the following six-month period, mainly adding to the 'landline and wireless' group. This segment saw a marginal fall (0.1%) over the last sixth-month period, but can probably expect to see further falls as economic weakness makes owning more than one phone less attractive to a wider portion of the public.

Notably, while the percentage of landline-only homes has halved since June 2004, falling from 39.6% to 21.8%, there is still a significant proportion of the population living in landline-only homes. As coverage improves and wireless deals have become more attractive as 'the only phone you need', this can also be expected to continue to fall. Some 14.5% of adults and 14.4% of children were recorded as living in wireless-only homes, up from 12.6% and 11.9% respectively six months earlier. The analysis reveals a number of factors determining wireless-only status:

• Home Ownership: The survey provides some analysis of who wireless-only users are—59.6% of people living with an unrelated roommate are wireless-only, with 30.9% of adults renting, compared to 7.3% of home-owners.
• Age: Some 30.9% of 18-24 year olds, 34.5% of 25-29 year olds, 15.5% of 30-44 year olds, 8.0% of 45-64 year olds, and 2.2% of over 65 year olds live in a wireless-only home. This reflects the status of the home phone as a major symbol of family living. The increase in wireless-only users in the lower age groups over the previous six months is marked—the 18-24 age group rose from 27.9% to 30.9%, the 25-29 age group rose from 31% to 34.5%, while the 30-44 age group rose from 12.6% to 15.5%.
• Gender: Gender plays a role, with 15.9% of men and 13.2% of women likely to live in wireless-only homes.
• Income: Poverty is a defining factor in the move to go wireless-only, with 27.4% of those defined as 'living in poverty' using only the mobile phone, a significant rise from the 21.6% rate six months earlier, showing the increasing viability of mobile-only as an economic option.
• Region: The income factor is reflected in the regional distribution of income, with adults in the southern states 17.1% more likely to be wireless-only, up from 14.9% six months ago, compared to 15.3% in the mid-west (14% six months ago) and 10% (8.8% six months ago) in the north-east.
• Race: Some 19.3% of Hispanic adults were wireless-only, up from 18.0% six months ago, compared to 18.3% of black adults, up from 14.0% six months ago, and 12.9% of white adults, up from 11.3% six months ago.
• Mostly Wireless: While there are a large number of wireless and landline homes, 22.3% of users in these homes stated that they receive all or almost all their calls on their mobile phone. These households are somewhat different to wireless-only households in that they are higher-income, metropolitan users. They represent a large group that will likely realise the redundancy of their home phone.
• Health: Health indicators reflect the younger, poorer demographic of mobile-only users with better health, but higher incidences of binge drinking (37.3% versus 17.7%), and lower rates of health insurance cover.

Outlook and Implications

The survey provides an effective snapshot of actual phone penetration on a household basis. It reports surprisingly high levels of landline-only use, although this continues to fall rapidly, while mobile-only use ramps up by over 2% every six-month period. While there will remain a core user-base of landline-owning families, it paints a picture of highly mobile, young, low-income users that have largely opted for mobile as the only phone connection they need. The economic downturn, which has particularly hit home-ownership, is likely to be driving some of this trend.

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