Surveys of consumer and business voice communication trends have shown a steady decline in wireline usage, replaced by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) subscriptions and wireless adoption.
One such survey is the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC (News - Alert)) annual Local Telephone Competition, formulated with data up through June 30, 2013. In this report, it was found that in June of 2010 there were 123 million end-user switched access lines in service, 29 million interconnected VoIP subscriptions and 279 million mobile subscriptions in the United States. Meanwhile, 2013 data showed that switched access lines fell to 90 million (an annual decline of 10 percent), VoIP rose to 45 million (a compound annual growth of 16 percent) and mobile subscriptions rose to 306 million (a compound annual growth of 3 percent).
Of the wireline services, which include switched access lines and VoIP subscriptions, 57 percent were residential connections and 43 percent were business. Forty-seven percent of those residential customers were VoIP subscribers, as opposed to 15 percent of business subscribers.
In a related report conducted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it was found that 41 percent of American homes in 2013 used wireless phone exclusively. This number has been steadily increasing over the years, but has begun to plateau in terms of rate of change. The survey also asked questions for people who may live in a “wireless-mostly” household, a situation in which there is a wired connection but it is rarely or never used, and found that approximately 18 percent of households can be described in this way.
The U.S. Telecom Association (News - Alert) has been projected the trends of wireless adoption and substitution since 2005, finding a steady increase in wireless and decrease in landlines. In 2012 wireless households surpassed landline households, and this ratio is expected to continue to grow stronger in favor of wireless.
All of this data from the three researchers points to a continuously growing interest in wireless service in favor of more traditional technology, especially in younger demographics. As the years march on and the currently young demographics get older, it can be surmised that wired connections will continue to decline and potentially even die out altogether.
Edited by Alisen Downey