VoIP, Cellular bite U.S. fixed-lines hard

Over 16 million U.S. consumer VoIP lines were in service by the first quarter of 2008, according to new data released by TeleGeography, representing nearly 14 percent of all households and 27 percent of broadband households. Meanwhile, data released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says in the last six months of 2007 at least 16 percent of U.S. households have one or more cell phones, but no landlines.

Since 2005, the RBOCs--AT&T, Verizon and Qwest--have lost over 17 million residential telephone lines, with more than 80 percent of new VoIP subscribers tapping into the services of cable companies.

A chart illustrating the losses and gains around fixed and VoIP could best be described as the cone of pain for RBOCs; VoIP subscribers are going up nearly as rapidly as fixed line subscribers are departing so there's a nice upward line for VoIP and a downward one for RBOCs on a year to year basis.

RBOCs are fighting back against cable with their own triple-play offerings, but they have a long way to go to recapture subscribers. Verizon had over 18.8 million subs to its FiOS fiber offering in Q108 while AT&T 379,00 U-Verse broadband and video subscribers, including 4,000 VoIP subscribers.

The CDC started getting into landline vs. cell phone numbers because it asks for follow-up contact information when conducting surveys. Government statisticians are concerned wireless phone users are a different "representative population" when compared to landline users, skewing survey data. Landline phone penetration is about what it was in the early 1960s and the numbers will continue droppings as the 18-29 set continues to abandon landline usage.

Take heart if you do have a landline. Wireless-only adults were more likely to report having engaged in binge drinking and to smoke and less likely to report being obese; also twice as likely not to have health insurance.  Of course, since this is the 18-29 demographic, the skew here is apparent.

For more:
- TeleGeography report on RBOCs losing landlines
- CDC study on wireless usage reviewed by the Wall Street Journal

Related articles:
Comcast takes video hit, but adds telephony subs
Qwest earnings drop as landline losses swell
DT posts earnings boost, landlines decline 6.3%