Fixed telephone lines in the home could soon become a thing of the past, according to new research, as many consumers expect voice and data services to become mainly wireless in the next two years.
The study by mobile phone maker, Nokia, shows more and more people are moving away from land lines to use mobile telephones for all or most voice calls.
It was revealed that fixed-to-mobile substitution (FMS) is occurring across Great Britain, USA, Germany and South Korea, with over 45 million consumers saying they now make all their voice calls from their mobile phone in these markets alone.
It is also expected that mobiles could challenge fixed line connections for data access, such as the internet, at home too. Those who claim they are certain or very likely to adopt wireless service for data expect this to happen in the next year or two, with those who already have broadband at home being most interested.
It seems in the UK we are more likely than any other country to think about the length of the call before deciding which telephone we use. If the call is going to be lengthy then we will choose a landline phone because it is perceived as cheaper than a mobile phone, in fact, 69% of British respondents said this was a key deciding factor.
Overall, the outlook for the future is that it will be wireless, as technology improves, with quality and reliability issues becoming less important.
Nokia’s study goes a long way in backing up recent research from Mediamark Research Inc (MRI) which shows a growing number of households in the US are swapping their land line telephone for a mobile phone, as the number of homes without a land line nearly doubles over the last four years (see Landlines Losing To Mobile Phones).
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