Cell phone only households predict modern behaviour: MTM

Cell phone only households, meaning those that use only mobile phones and no landline, are growing across Canada and are a good indication of a series of modern habits, said a report published Thursday from the Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. In a spring 2017 survey, MTM found that 88 per cent of adult respondents in Canada have a cell phone. According to Statistics Canada data included in the report, as of 2015, 27.5 per cent of households don’t have a landline. This is an increase from 23.7 per cent in 2014. People who only have cell phones skew more male, young, anglophone and diverse, the report found. They also earn less and are more likely to be students, said the report. Cell-only households have also embraced today’s up-to-date content delivery systems like Netflix Inc. and online video, with respondents spending twice as much time consuming those services. The MTM report explained that cell-only individuals love iPhones, with 47 per cent of respondents saying they own an Apple Inc. device. They are also more varied in their mobile plan purchasing. While BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. still account for the providers of the majority of respondents' cell phone plans, flanker brands like Rogers’ Fido, Telus’ Koodo and Bell’s Virgin Mobile end up being represented almost twice as much, at 30 per cent versus 16 per cent for customers who also have landlines. Good news for landline providers is that the responders who currently do have a landline are probably going to keep it, with 76 per cent saying it’s either “not very likely” or “not likely” they’ll cancel their phone lines, according to the report. Among those who do want to cancel their landline, two in five are motivated by the cost. According to the report, cell phone only individuals are more likely to do more of their daily activities on their mobile device, like obtain the news from social media, connect with their loved ones and stream music and video. The researchers also found they were more likely to consider themselves heavy multitaskers and spend more time on the internet in general. The data from this survey mainly came from telephone surveys. Anglophone respondents were surveyed from Oct. 7 to Dec. 12, 2016 by Forum Research Inc, while Francophone interviews were done by Ad hoc Research from Oct. 14 to Dec. 5, 2017, and April 5 to May 11, 2017. The results of this report are based on 12,335 adult Canadians, with a margin of error within plus and minus 0.9 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

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Cell phone only households predict modern behaviour: MTM

Brief | November 3, 2017

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