The first paragraph of a recent Verizon Wireless direct mail campaign begins:
These days, more and more people are looking for ways to cut costs and save money. Some are even disconnecting their home phone for the convenience and security of their wireless phone. Not to metion the savings. This is a great opportunity for you to cut down on costs by making your wireless phone your only phone.
(emphasis added)
Given that Verizon is a carrier with lots of landline customers this would seem to be somewhat heretical. Here’s what Verizon said in its 2008 annual report about loss of consumer landlines:
Declines in switched access lines in service of 9.3% in 2008 and 8.1% in 2007 were mainly driven by the effects of competition and technology substitution. Residential retail access lines declined 11.4% in 2008 and 9.5% in 2007, as customers substituted wireless, VoIP, broadband and cable services for traditional voice landline services. At the same time, small business retail access lines declined 5.0% in 2008 and 4.0% in 2007, primarily reflecting competition and a shift to high-speed access lines. The resulting total retail access line loss was 9.1% and 7.6% in 2008 and 2007, respectively.
(emphasis added)
The US CDC now estimates that about 20% of American households are wireless only:
More than one of every five American homes (20.2%) had only wireless telephones (also known as cellular telephones, cell phones, or mobile phones) during the second half of 2008 . . .
Back to Verizon. It turns out that this promotion is targeting non-Verizon-landline customers:
“It is not a reaction to cable VoIP or cable phone customers,” says Verizon spokesman Robert Elek. “The majority of the people receiving this are not Verizon landline customers,” he says. “It is designed for all customers in the country.”
To retain landline customers Verizon is doing things like introducing media phone “The Hub,” which seeks to blend the phone and the Internet:
