Are Landlines Dead and Buried?

MEDIA RELEASE

Are Landlines Dead and Buried?

Auckland, 01 March 2017. New Canstar Blue Survey reveals one in five kiwis no longer have a landline telephone and rely on their mobile for communication.

The survey of 2,258 Kiwis also revealed that it was women (43%) rather than men (32%) who were ditching the home phone in favour of smart technology.

Canstar Blue spokesperson Emma Quantrill said:

“New Zealand has always been switched on when it comes to communications. In the 1930’s we had more telephones per capita than any other country bar the USA, so it makes sense that we’re happy to embrace the latest round of technology.

“Unsurprisingly it is our younger generation leading the revolution with around half of Gen Ys living landline free compared to just 10% of baby boomers.”

The results of this survey suggest the continuation of the trend identified in the 2013 Census which cited landline usage as declining from 91.6% in 2006 to 83.7% in 2013.

Mobile versus computer

As the functionality of mobile phones continues to increase, for some people it is not only replacing their telephone, but their computer too. As smartphones become commonplace (they’ve outsold regular phones on a global scale since 2013), more than one quarter of the Kiwis surveyed reported that they now use their phone more than their computer.

Internet access is also important with 35% of people relying on apps such as Facebook and Whatsapp to contact friends rather than by text or voice call.

Quantrill went on to say:

“These insights into customer behaviours show just how quickly we have adapted to, what is still, relatively new technology. As recently as 2001, only 37% of households had access to the internet, mostly by ‘dialling up’ through existing telephone lines. With the development of Wifi, there are now very few limitations to where, when and how we use our mobile devices and our younger generations are taking connectivity for granted.

“Our appetite for accessing everything from our bank accounts to information on our sleep patterns via that small device in our pocket seems insatiable. It’ll be interesting to see where technology takes us next.”

Most Satisfied Customers – Prepay plans (options)

If you’re on a budget, or don’t like having to mess around with costly contracts and bundled phone plans, a prepaid option can work out to be great value. They differ from other phone plans in that you pay first, load credit and then you can either top up only when you need to, or set it to ‘auto recharge’. This can work out to be pretty cost-effective, and is a great option to prevent bill shock as you only use what you pay for.

For the third year running, Skinny Mobile has topped Canstar Blue’s customer ratings for prepay providers. Skinny was the only provider to receive five star reviews across all categories.

ENDS

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