The latest Roy Morgan ‘State of the Nation – Media Report’ says that less than half Australia’s population have a home phone connected (48.6%). The data is based on Roy Morgan’s regular survey of Australian households, based on its ‘Single Source’ large and representative sample.
Data from government sources, such as the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Australian Bureau of Statistics still show a majority of households with a landline, but their figures are invariably a year to 18 months out of date. The Roy Morgan data is less accurate, but much more current.
The remarkable thing is that Roy Morgan reports that the number of households with landlines is down 9.5 percentage points from a year ago. That means that nearly a million households have ditched landlines just in the last 12 months (there are nearly 10 million households in Australia). The number had previously been declining comparatively slowly.
The report does not spell it out, but there is little doubt that the main reason for the accelerated decline is the increased penetration of the NBN. People with a with a landline that they may not have used much saw little reason to get rid of it, but when faced with the choice of an NBN service with or without a landline the decision became much easier. The NBN rollout is now nearly complete, and the last 12 months has seen more people connected than ever.
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ACMA data also shows that older people are much more likely to use landlines and younger people. In May 2018, the most recent period for which ACMA has published data, 79% of people aged 65 and over used landlines, while only 18% of those aged 25 to 34 did so. The proportion using mobiles only declined for every age group except those aged 18 to 24, where usage was a little higher than the group older than them. But many of these people are still living at home with their ageing parents.
There is little doubt that landline usage will continue to decline. In the modern world there is simply no reason to own one. The end of an era and all that.