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

Posted by BeauHD on from the there's-a-first-for-everything dept.

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.

4 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I still have a landline by sims+2 · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://www.wheresmycellphone....

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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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  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.