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Print Edition StoriesThursday, January 22, 2009
More now spent in U.S. on cell phones than landlines
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Americans now spend more for cell phones than for landline telephone services, according to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Fifty-five percent of all consumer telephone expenditures were for cell phones in 2007, the latest year for which official figures are available. Landlines accounted for 43 percent, with the remaining 2 percent going for other services, such as pagers and phone cards.
It marked the first time that cell phones had topped landlines in annual consumer spending, as monitored by BLS.
Landlines were dominant as recently as 2003, when they captured 65 percent of all U.S. telephone expenditures. But the share for landlines dropped rapidly in subsequent years -- 60 percent in 2004, 54 percent in 2005, and 50 percent in 2006, before the latest slip to 43 percent in 2007.
The typical U.S. consumer spent $1,110 on telephone services in 2007, with $608 going for cell phones, $482 for landlines and $20 for other services.
The BLS study found a direct correlation between age and cell phone spending.
Consumers under the age of 25 directed 75 percent of their telephone expenditures to cell phones. That figure dropped for each rung on the age ladder. People between the ages of 25 and 34 spent 67 percent on cell phones; 35-44, 59 percent; 45-54, 57 percent; 55-64, 48 percent; and 65 and older, 33 percent.
The news can only be good for local mobile tech companies such as Skyworks Solutions Inc., a Woburn mobile semiconductor maker that makes components for wireless cell phones and devices, such as femtocells. The company counts Sony Ericsson Mobile Communication AB, Motorola Inc. and Samsung as its three largest customers, and its products have been rumored to be in the Apple iPhone, though executives have not confirmed that.
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