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Majority of US Households Now Cellphone-Only, Government Says (networkworld.com)

The National Center for Health Statistics has released a report that says, for the first time in history, U.S. households with landlines are now in the minority. Network World reports: The second 6 months of 2016 was the first time that a majority of American homes had only wireless telephones. Preliminary results from the July-December 2016 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) indicate that 50.8% of American homes did not have a landline telephone but did have at least one wireless telephone (also known as cellular telephones, cell phones, or mobile phones) -- an increase of 2.5 percentage points since the second 6 months of 2015. Young adults (25-34) and those who rent are most likely to live wireless-only, as 70 percent of that demographic lives with a landline.

5 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I still have a landline by sims+2 · · Score: 4, Informative
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    Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
  2. Re:I still have a landline by swillden · · Score: 4, Informative

    I still have a landline. I need it so that when I can't find my cellphone, I can call it and search for the ringing sound.

    If your phone is an Android device, try https://www.google.com/android...

    It's better than calling because when you use the device manager to ring the phone, it rings max volume, even if the ringer was turned down or silenced, and it rings for five minutes so you don't have to keep calling while you trace the sound.

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    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  3. Survey did NOT define "landline" as POTS by cshay · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the survey:

    Landline = "at least one phone inside your home that is
    currently working and is not a cell phone.â

    This includes a phone via cable internet.

    So not POTS. POTS has probably already been a minority for years.

  4. Re:fax by corychristison · · Score: 3, Informative

    Indeed. And in many cases if they don't offer T.38 (the fax standard over VOIP), they offer an e-mail based Fax gateway that's even easier to use than using a physical machine.

  5. Re:Copper theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Do you really think that Joe CrackHead would stop to think whether phones are still in use before he stripped and sold them?

    "Oh no, I better not steal these wires to support my habit; someone might still talking to their mother on them. I should wait until I receive official notice that they're no longer in use before I resort to my plan of thievery!"

    People get scared of what might happen if it's live, but think it's fair game if it's abandoned.

    The railway near where I live de-electrified one of their lines, and sold the copper overhead for scrap. The scrap dealer who bought it decided to leave it there for a couple of years before tearing it down as copper prices were shooting upwards at the time. They just left it electrified with a few hundred volts. Once word got out that electric trains no longer ran on that line, there were about half a dozen idiots a year getting zapped as they tried to steal it. The survivors thought it was really unfair that the catenary was still live when it was supposed to be abandoned.