​Australians ditching the landline for mobile phones: ACMA

The latest research from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has highlighted that an increasing number of Australians are choosing to ditch their landlines and instead rely on their smartphones and internet connection for voice communication.

The report -- titled Australians get mobile: Using mobile devices for voice, messaging, and internet access -- showed that as of December 2014, nearly one third of adult Australians were mobile-only phone users. This means that 5.2 million people rely on mobile phones for voice communication, and do not have a fixed-line telephone. This has increased substantially from four years ago, when only 2.2 million people were mobile-only phone users. Fifty four percent of the mobile-only users were aged 25 to 34, and living in a shared household.

The ACMA report also found that 21 percent of Australians are mobile-only internet users who rely on their mobile device -- whether a mobile phone, tablet, or mobile broadband connection -- to access the internet. While the increase in mobile-only internet access has not kept pace with mobile-only phone users, as of December 2014, there were 3.9 million Australians who were mobile-only internet users, compared to 2013, when it was just 3.5 million Australians. Twenty eight percent of these users are aged 25 to 34 years old, and 26 percent of them are from regional areas.

On the other end of the age spectrum, while in decline, the ACMA found that over 65-year-olds continued to remain strong users of fixed lines for phone and internet.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Australians are exclusively mobile users. As at December 2014, 12 percent of the population had neither a fixed-line telephone nor a fixed internet connection, and instead used their mobile devices for voice communications, messaging, and internet access at home. This was up from the 10 percent posted in December 2013.