As the wireless penetration rate increases across the United States, some interesting data starts to emerge.
During the second half of 2006, more than 3 out of 20 American households did not have a land line telephone, and of those without a land line telephone, most had at least one working wireless telephone. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), conducted from July to
December 2006 by the National Center for Health Statistics (part of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention), shows that as the number of wireless-only households continues to increase, certain segments of the population are increasingly defined by their ownership of a land line.
While that data simply proves what most marketers already know, some specific numbers are surprising – and may suggest interesting applications for 3G platforms in the future. For example, adults who rent a household were much more likely than adults who own a house to use a wireless phone exclusively.
Additionally, half of all wireless-only adults were less than 30 years old. What’s even more interesting – largely because advanced applications such as 3G aren’t necessarily cheap (as of yet) – is the income distribution level of the users of wireless-only telephones: Adults living in poverty (22.4%) were more likely than higher income adults to be living in households with
only wireless telephones.