• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, October 16, 2004

Young Males Lead The Way Towards a Cell-Only Population

According to a new analysis from Mediamark Research Inc., 8.1% of U.S. households do not have landline telephones, up from 4.2% in the spring of 2000. Non-landline consumers are those who have chosen to rely solely on cell phones or no phone at all.

Andy Arthur, VP of Client Services at MRI, said "After years of coexistence between cells and landlines, cell phones have recently begun to contribute to the desertion of landline service. While non-landline households traditionally have been characterized by downscale and less-educated consumers, this is clearly no longer the case."

The median household income for the non-landline population rose from 63% below that of the general population to 49% below. And the college graduation rate for non-landline consumers has more than quadrupled, to 11.8%. And, the non-landline consumers of 2004 are increasingly younger.

Of the 8.1% of U.S. households that do not have landlines, more than 3 in 10 (31%) are truly "phoneless," having neither a cell nor a landline, down from 70% in spring 2001. Since cell-only households have significantly higher incomes than phoneless households (median HHI $32,948 v. $16,058), and since cell-only consumers are younger (median age 28.8 v. 38.7), the growth of the cell-only segment explains the recent tilts in the profile of the non-landline population.

The research shows that while males represent 48.0% of the total adult population, they account for 57.6% of the cell-only population. "If the traditional patterns hold, these young males may be the leading edge of a larger, more mainstream group of cell-only consumers," said Arthur.

A full 7.9% of single-person households are now cell-only, compared to 5.5% of households in general. That means that 16.7% of single-person households in which a cell phone exists are now cell-only. And, according to the 2004 study, the number of cell phones is equal to or greater than the number of household members in at least 26.3% of U.S. households.

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