US landline-less homes up 10%

The National Center for Health Statistics released its bi-annual study of landline abandonment today, and it shows more and more consumers are ditching their home phone service for wireless options. The study was conducted between January and June of this year, and it polled more than 30,000 adults and 11,000 minors under 18.

The study shows that 17.5 percent of households are now wireless-only, up 10 percent from its 2006 results. The largest cohort of wireless-only "household units" (any number of people, related or unrelated, living in a single dwelling) was unrelated roommates, with 63 percent of respondents in this category sticking with mobile only. Also, and not too surprisingly, homeowners were much more likely to still have a landline than renters, and impoverished households were nearly twice as likely to be wireless-only than more affluent households.

Those in the South and the Midwest were almost twice as likely to have abandoned their landline than people in the Northeast and West. There's probably some interesting geography (flat land vs. mountains) behind that.

For more:
- Ars Technica has this report [1] 

Related articles
Documenting the death of landlines [2]
Comcast sees voice sign-ups boom, profit fall [3]