Vodafone claims 1.4 million ready to ditch fixed lines

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 23 February 2006 17:30

IT Industry - Market

Vodafone says that a survey it commissioned from Newspoll has revealed that approximately 1.4 million Australians see few reasons to hold onto their landline and are seriously considering ditching it altogether to become totally mobile inside the next two years.

About 40 percent of respondents said that their mobile phone was now their main point of contact, and 22 percent would ditch their landline and just use a mobile if they moved houses. Forty percent had friends who had already ditched their landline, making them more likely to consider going totally mobile. Approximately one-third of respondents said they would turn 'mobile only' if they could access the Internet via mobile broadband at a comparable price.

Vodafone said the survey results indicated that the move to ditch the landline and switch to mobile at home was being driven largely by the availability and affordability of capped mobile plans.

Richard Sherwood, general manager of mass markets, Vodafone Australia, said: "We expect with the recent launch of the latest $0 handsets on 24 month contract that more people will take up Vodafone cap plans and use their mobile as their main point of contact."