Consumer Wireless Spending Now Exceeds Wireline

Since 2007, Americans have been spending more for mobile than for landline telephone services, according to a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2007, 55 percent of all consumer telephone expenditures were for wireless service, the latest year for which official figures are available. Landlines accounted for 43 percent, with the remaining two percent going for other services, such as pagers and phone cards.

It marked the first time that cellphones had topped landlines in annual consumer spending, as monitored by BLS.

In 2003, consumers spent 65 percent of their communications budget on landline voice. But the share for landlines dropped rapidly in subsequent years. Landline share fell to 60 percent in 2004, 54 percent in 2005, and 50 percent in 2006, before the latest slip to 43 percent in 2007.

The typical U.S. consumer spent $1,110 on telephone services in 2007, with $608 going for cellphones, $482 for landlines and $20 for other services. the BLS study obviously does not include spending for broadband access or other related services such as cable TV, in these amounts.

The BLS study found a direct correlation between age and cellphone spending, as you might expect. Consumers under the age of 25 directed 75 percent of their telephone expenditures to cellphones. That figure dropped for each rung on the age ladder. People between the ages of 25 and 34 spent 67 percent on cellphones; 35-44, 59 percent; 45-54, 57 percent; 55-64, 48 percent; and 65 and older, 33 percent.