Leaving Landline Behind & Goin’ Wireless

Need to get in touch with Tadd Schwartz? Whether you’re a client, a co-worker, a friend or mom calling days, nights or weekends, there’s only one number to remember.

Schwartz has gone wireless.

Schwartz made the move to wireless-only in August 2001 when he moved into his South Beach condominium. Instead of installing a traditional phone line, Schwartz thought about his habits. Single and often working from the road or the office, Schwartz, 33, lives a mobile lifestyle. A traditional landline would have just created an additional and unnecessary expense.

“It was part of my plan to simplify my life,” he said. “With one number, I’m always accessible.”

By year’s end, 50 percent of U.S. consumers will use a wireless phone – treating it more like a utility instead of a novelty, according to Yankee Group, a research firm in Cambridge, Mass. At the same time, upward of five percent of traditional phone service users in the U.S. have switched to wireless phones as their only residential phone, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, an industry trade association in Washington, D.C.

The number of people using wireless phones as their only phones – for business and personal use – is destined to grow with November’s schedule implementation of the Federal Communications Commission’s Local Number Portability regulation. The new regulation will require that wireless providers let consumers keep their wireless phone numbers when they change services. Eventually, the regulation will mandate that phone companies allow consumers to transfer phone numbers between landlines or wireless lines.

Questions remain about the regulation’s feasibility, said Ron Cowles, research vice president with Gartner, a research firm in Stamford, Conn. But between lower cost, ease of mobility and the increasing quality of wireless signals, upward of 10 percent of wireline customers will be enticed to transfer service following LNP implementation, he said.

Younger consumers – those between college age into their early 30s, will be more inclined to choose wireless, as it’s part of their culture, he said. Likely to benefit most from the regulation and move to wireless-only connections are mass market consumers, including residential users, small or home business owners and corporate employees who work remotely, as opposed to larger businesses, he said.

“We see this as a market-changing event,” he said. “It permits a whole new way of marketing to customers.”

Going wireless only works if the calling plan dovetails with the user’s calling patterns. Schwartz reviewed available plans, and picked a Verizon plan that matched his needs. Today, he pays about $70 a month for 1,500 local or long-distance daytime minutes, with free nights and weekends. He had been spending around $45 a month on a residential phone – plus $50 for wireless, he said.

Instead of dialing up the Internet, he accesses the Web from home with a cable modem. Some users can purchase “Smart” phones and other convergent devices that combine wireless phones with e-mail, Web browsing, contact management and calendaring functions. Telemarketers don’t call his wireless phone, and he rarely misses calls on the road. And people can call him on the business phone at his Coral Gables office.

Wireless-only has its pitfalls. Unlike landlines, Schwartz’s wireless phone occasionally drop calls or suffers poor reception. People expect him to always answer; the only way to escape callers is to shut off the phone. To avoid his battery dying, Schwartz keeps $10 chargers in his home, office and car, he said.

But he won’t go back, Schwartz said.