Young Canadians Ditching the Landline Service

The Canadian government's statistics office has published a survey of telephone use in December 2008 and noted that nearly three-quarters (74.3%) of Canadian households indicated they had a cell phone in 2008, up from (72.4%) in 2007.

The proportion of households with cell phones was highest in Alberta (84.5%), Saskatchewan (78.0%), British Columbia (77.8%) and Ontario (76.8%). Quebec had the lowest rate of cell phone use at 65.5% of households.

In 2008, 8% of households reported only having cell phones and no landline service - up from 6.4% in 2007.

The survey also found that younger households were much more likely to use only a cell phone, with 34.4% of households comprised solely of adults aged between 18 and 34 relying exclusively on cell phones. Among all other households the rate was 4.5%.

In 2008, two-thirds (67.0%) of the households that used only cell phones were renters rather than homeowners.

The proportion of households without any phone service remained unchanged from 2007 at 0.9%.

Posted to the site on 17th June 2009