• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 23, 2001

A Gartner Dataquest survey showed that since January of this year, nearly 6% of all U.S. households had replaced a traditional telephone access line with alternative communications. Planning campaigns, positioning product and reaching prospects are all impacted by this trend.

"A significant segment of the additional residence lines were never used for voice communications but rather for dial-up Internet access and faxing…" said Peggy Schoener, senior analyst for Gartner Dataquest's Telecommunications and Networking group

The presence of wireless phones in U.S. households has reached a critical mass and continues to grow. Gartner Dataquest's June survey reports that:
- 64.3 million households have at least one wireless phone available to the household.
- This represents nearly 61% of all households, increasing from 50% reported 16 months earlier.
- Of all households reporting residence access line replacement over the past six months, 2.3 million, or 33% of lines, were replaced with a cellular/PCS phone.

In the report, Schoener said that the attractive per-minute bundled pricing plans, free minutes, the mobility factor, and other promotions offered by the highly competitive wireless industry make household wireless voice communications preferable to wireline calling.

The survey reported that of all residence access lines replaced since January:
- 55% migrated to high-speed broadband access. The impact has significant revenue implications for those service providers capturing the broadband customer.
- 70% of these voice lines replaced by broadband migrated to a local exchange high-speed residential service, with DSL the most popular migration choice.