More and more USA households are dropping their landlines and opting to go completely wireless. According to Telephia, the largest provider of consumer research to the communications and new media markets, households in Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul have the highest rate of wireless substitution among the 20 largest cities in the country. Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul posted household wireless substitution rates of 19 and 15.2 percent, respectively. The Tampa metropolitan area secured a 15.1 percent rate, representing nearly 177,000 households. Nearly 219,000 (14.3%) households in Atlanta and 220,000 (13.6%) households in Washington D.C. cut the cord. Rounding out the top 10 were Phoenix , Seattle , Denver , Boston and Los Angeles .
"Several factors influence the rate of wireless substitution across different metropolitan markets including income levels, ethnic mix, and average age," said Kanishka Agarwal, Telephia's VP of New Products. "Telephia provides wired and wireless service providers with the research they need to understand and track this important change in consumer behavior at the market level."
San Francisco : Tech Capital Holding onto Landline
San Francisco , which generally leads the nation in the adoption of many new technology products, landed at the bottom of the list. According to Telephia, the San Francisco metropolitan area posted just a 5.5 percent wireless substitution rate, which works out to be a little over 105,000 households.
"San Franciscans have traditionally been early adopters of advanced technologies. It is a bit of a surprise to see this metro much lower on the list, but this could be driven by the area's high income level or its relatively low level of mobile network quality," added Agarwal. "For topology and zoning reasons, mobile networks in San Francisco are not as reliable as compared to other top cities and it's a less attractive substitute."
Wireless Substitution Rates for Largest U.S. Metropolitan Areas
| Metropolitan Area | Total Households | Wireless Substitution Rate | Wireless Only Households |
New York | 6,988,000 | 6.5% | 453,254 |
Los Angeles | 5,374,491 | 9.8% | 527,497 |
Chicago | 2,751,090 | 8.3% | 228,748 |
Philadelphia | 2,309,987 | 7.4% | 171,102 |
Boston | 1,950,139 | 10.0% | 194,962 |
San Francisco | 1,903,708 | 5.5% | 105,127 |
Dallas | 1,694,764 | 8.0% | 135,219 |
Washington, | 1,613,508 | 13.6% | 220,145 |
Houston | 1,613,508 | 8.7% | 140,821 |
Phoenix | 1,543,860 | 13.5% | 207,714 |
Atlanta, | 1,532,252 | 14.3% | 218,393 |
Detroit | 1,474,213 | 19.0% | 280,612 |
Seattle | 1,288,485 | 13.2% | 169,938 |
Tampa | 1,172,405 | 15.1% | 176,877 |
San Diego | 1,102,757 | 9.6% | 105,983 |
Cleveland | 1,079,541 | 7.3% | 78,287 |
Denver | 1,056,326 | 11.3% | 119,460 |
St. Louis | 1,056,326 | 7.2% | 76,090 |
Minneapolis | 975,070 | 15.2% | 148,254 |
Baltimore | 858,990 | 5.8% | 49,981 |
Source: Observed data from the Telephia Total Communications Survey (Q2 2006)
Note: Wireless substitution rates were determined through an online survey of 700+ households for each metropolitan area. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data was used to adjust for off-line households. Differences in wireless penetration rates between cities may not be statistically significant."
Posted to the site on 19th October 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/19927.php