Landlines the latest victims of cellphones

Bid farewell to that home phone - it looks like its days are numbered.

According to a new international survey, more than half of all New Zealanders will use their mobiles more often than a landline next year. But while Kiwis are becoming ever more mobile-centric, we rank low in using them to access data and entertainment services.

This is the first year New Zealand has been included in Mobinet, a global study into 4000 mobile phone users in 21 countries, conducted by management firm AT Kearney and Cambridge University.

Tauranga businesswoman Fiona Fullerton, 34, has followed the trend. In February she and her husband ditched their landline and say they have no regrets.

"We were annoyed at paying landline fees," she said. "We found we weren't using the line as often as we were using our mobiles.

"The other reason was we were fed up with telemarketers annoying us at dinner-time - and our parents at bizarre hours of the morning!"

Auckland resident Tom Brodie and his four flatmates will be making the same switch next year, saying goodbye to the landline.

"Essentially it's the cost factor," said Mr Brodie, a customer services representative. "We all have cellphones but pay $40 a month for Call Minder and the landline.

"The situation is a bit ridiculous. Often you've got a cellphone right next to your landline, and people calling you on your cellphone.

"My flatmates and I will probably hook the internet up again, too, and the broadband on the top of the phone line will be another $40, whereas you can go wireless for maybe $60 or less.

"It's just cheaper."

The survey shows that New Zealand ranks among the leading countries for multimedia phone (those capable of browsing mobile websites or accessing email) penetration. Sixty-eight per cent of New Zealand's mobile users own handsets less than a year old. The proportion of users with newer multimedia phones is 69 per cent, well above the global average of 53 per cent.

The Mobinet survey also showed that New Zealand mobile users have a definite preference about the way they pay for their services.

Sixty-four per cent prefer bundled mobile packages.

Telecommunication Users Association chief executive Ernie Newman said he was aware of a small but growing number of users who were now totally reliant on mobile phones.

"It is tempting, depending on lifestyle," he said. Two factors were preventing more people adopting it.

"Often people need the fixed line for their broadband connection and, once you've got it for your broadband, you might as well have it for your voice too.

"A second factor is the high price of fixed calls to mobiles. That's to do with what's called 'termination charges' that mobile phone operators in New Zealand impose."

The Commerce Commission has recommended that current rates be halved, but Vodafone has taken the Commerce Commission to court over this. "The whole issue is now parked in a legal morass," said Mr Newman. "The user won't see the benefit of all that work until it's unscrambled," - and that could be months away.

Mr Newman said it was "alarming" that mobile phone call prices in New Zealand were among the highest in the developed world.

"We're the fourth most expensive in the OECD."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY