Landlines Market Going Way of Dodo

New York Times picks up on something that ThirdPipe has been noting for 2 years now. The generational shift of younger citizens to be 100% cell based communicators. Their only landline tie being cable for high speed internet access. Some interesting numbers —

Still have a landline? You’re showing your age. The young, hip, cool people have cellphones only, and that is bad news for traditional phone providers. In a survey of Internet users, JupiterResearch found that 12 percent “do not subscribe to fixed voice service, and nearly two-thirds of them are ages 18 to 34.”

It is true that 70 percent of online users still have fixed lines in their homes provided by a telecommunications company. Fifteen percent receive fixed-line service from a cable company (cable providers are attracting customers with “bundled” offers) and 3 percent from an Internet-based service provider.

The trouble for the Telcos is that as time marches on there is an abandonment of already paid for physical plant. And sad as it might be that they could provide advanced telcom service cheaply over the existing copper the tide is against them. The wireless technology is not standing still and its bandwidth capabilities are on par today with the low end of a DSL line. That will only increase over time. The last nail in the coffin is the fact that this wireless generation, weaned of the wired phone, will see no need for it — ever.

Linky