Third Wave of Cord Cutting: Home Internet Service

From Fortune magazine

Here Comes the Third Wave of Cord Cutting: Home Internet Service

People are increasingly relying on their phones to get online, and cutting the cord to home broadband Internet service. 

Aaron Pressman

October 2nd, 2018

 

The trend of people cutting their home Internet connections in favor of wireless online connectivity is accelerating, according to the latest survey from Pew Research. No doubt fed by falling prices for wireless service and the spread of unlimited data plans, Internet cord cutting has now reached one in five Americans, almost double the level of two years ago.

The percentage of people who say they depend solely on their smartphones to connect to the Internet has risen steadily from 8% in 2013, to 12% in 2016, to 20% this year. Pew first highlighted the trend in 2015 when it recorded that the percentage of households with home Internet connections declined to 67% from 70% in 2013. That measure has since bounced around a bit, but stood at 65% in the latest survey from 2018, Pew reported.

[ HOWEVER, who knows how this survey was taken--to skew results to show what the Wireless TelCos need to justify their 40 million government grants???? 

I would say--look closer--aging Baby boomers are entering retirement--fixed incomes but more leisure time to stream 4K (eyesight fails--need larger crisper displays) at home and not on the go with small screens size of a smart phone or tablet--uh, uh.  

Yes, some have smartphone plans shared with their kids, but often for travel or emergency or economic self-budgeting on fixed incomes requiring uninstalling landlines which services are similar in price but not portable.  

And as the aging population increases--who not only have fixed retirement incomes but less disposable income due to continued health cost increases by Obama style premiums--limiting budget items such as smartphones with unlimited data plans--may give way to faster streaming bandwidth for leisure TV watching or hobbies needing a regular PC with large monitor....  Everybody gets older, wiser, blinder and home bound...

What about large families--6 people with their own smartphones sitting in corners somewhere vs family-oriented TV viewing????? Do the math on that one...]

The trend marks the third wave of cord cutting over the past few decades. In the first wave of cord cutting, people dropped their landline phone connections, starting around 2003, in favor of more convenient wireless connections. Almost 54% of households have only wireless phone service now, according to the most recent survey by National Center for Health Statistics.