• by Wayne Friedman , September 18, 2008

The trend toward mobile-only phone consumers is growing, according to a new Nielsen Company study--partly due to the weakening economy. 

Currently, 20 million households--about 17% of the country--rely completely on a mobile phone for their communications needs. Nielsen says that number could grow to 20% of all homes in New York by the end of 2008.

The study also notes that the average monthly land-line phone bill is $40 a month. Those who choose mobile-only are mostly at lower income levels--almost 60% of homes have an income of $40,000 or less. It also noted that households of just one or two people are more likely to be mobile-only.

Moving or changing jobs seem to be the biggest impetus to making the change to land-line cord-cutting: 31% of cord-cutters moved prior to cord cutting and 22% changed jobs.

Wireless-only consumers tend to save an average of $33 a month, and use their mobile phones 45% more overall then those who retain land lines. Still, mobile-only isn't the right move for everyone. Nielsen says 10% of phone customers who have experimented with wireless-only in their household returned to add a land-line service.