More Canadians ditching landlines: report

The pace at which Canadians are ditching their landlines in favour of cellphones is accelerating, according to a new report, butAmericans arestill way ahead.

About 12 per cent of 1,000 people polled by technology research firm IDC Canada said they had "cut the cord," a four-per-cent increase from the previous survey. Moreover, the number of people thinking about getting rid of their landline saw a "staggering" increase, to 66 per centfrom 52 per cent.

More people are deciding not to carry the double cost of both a landline and a cellphone,especially aswireless prices are heading downward, IDC said. Long-distance alternatives such as internet-based calling service Skype are also playing a role, the company added.

The findings are roughly in line with numbers reported by Statistics Canada. As of December 2008, only about eight per cent of Canadian households had cut the cord. Statscan is expected to report updated numbers this summer.

Bell Canada, the country's largest phone company, lost more than 99,000 landline customers in its most recent quarter while Telus, the No. 2 provider, lost about 58,000. Some of those customers switched to cable phone providers such as Rogers and Shaw, while others opted to cut the cord completely.

The rate at which Canadians are going wireless is considerably behind the United States,which isat about 25 per cent of households, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).The CDChas been tracking whether families' phone numbers reached landlines or mobile phones since 2003.

Canada is also last in the developed world in terms of mobile phone adoption, according to statistics from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The gap between the United States and Canada has been attributed primarily to better competition and lower pricing south of the border. A number of U.S. carriers, such as T-Mobile and MetroPCS,are pure wireless companies without landline businesses to protect, and have been more aggressive in encouraging customers to get rid of their landlines. U.S. wireless users also typically don't pay long-distance rates on calls within the United States, as Canadians do outside of their local coverage area.

New playerspushing prices down

"The plans and pricing are considerably different there and the [carriers] are different there," said IDC analyst Emily Taylor. "All those factors would play a role."

New wireless-only companies in Canada such as Wind Mobile, Mobilicity and Public Mobile, all of which launched in the past few months,are likely to accelerate things even more, she said.

"The new carriers could encourage it with cheaper pricing plans and increased competition. The potential is there for the pricing to be driven down even further, in turn making it of more interest to consider cutting the cord."

On the internet side, Canadians still aren'tgiving much thought toditching their wired connections in favour of wireless. Only about six per cent of respondents were seriouslyconsidering it, IDC said, although that too could increase over time as mobile internet services get better and cheaper.