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Talk Isn`t Cheap: Americans Cut Back on Cellular and Landlines
By: Michelle Maisto
2009-03-18
Article Rating:    / 2
There are 0 user comments on this Mobile & Wireless story.
Sprint may find some relief in its prepaid service, Boost Mobile, as an ORC study finds that Americans are cutting back on cell phone spending a trend thats expected to continue, despite more Americans getting rid of their landlines and relying only on cell phones.Millions of U.S. consumers have already cut back on cell phone spending, and
millions more are expected to join them as the economy forces users to be more
cautious with their spending dollars.
These are the findings of Opinion Research Corp., which surveyed 2,005
Americans for the New Millennium Research Council, a Washington, D.C.based
think tank.
The full findings of the ORC survey will be reported on March 19, and NMRC and
ORC representatives will explain how the fallout of this shift in consumer
habits is likely to hurt contract-based cell phone carriers and benefit prepaid carriers,
which enable consumers to better budget their spending.
One contract-based carrier, Sprint Nextelwhich
could use the helpoffers a prepaid plan through Boost Mobile. T-Mobile
also offers prepaid plans, as do many Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs),
such as Virgin Mobile and Tracfone, which purchase and resell airtime under
their own brand names.
Cell phone extras are also expected to be cut, reports the ORC, which will
continue to ask consumers about their cell phone use over the course of the
year, through a series of planned surveys.
Cell phone cost cutting comes even as a National Health Interview Survey
reported that, also to reduce costs, more Americans are
getting rid of their landlines and relying solely on cell phonesa
distressing fact for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which
relies on random calls to landlines for survey data and now fears that
landline-free households are being unrepresented in CDC data.
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