Hanging Up On Landlines Wired telephones are disappearing from America's homes.

For nearly a decade, the venerable wired telephone has been making a slow but steady retreat from the American home.

With the nation's economy now in tatters, that exodus appears to be picking up steam as cell phone users grow weary of paying for something many see as redundant.

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Some industry players have even jumped into the fray. Consider AT&T competitor Sprint Nextel Corp., which has been running a TV commercial this holiday season. It features chief executive Dan Hesse urging budget-minded consumers to think of his company's wireless division for all their telephone needs, ending with the simple, "Bye-bye, landline."

It's a message that resonates with consumers like Forrest FitzRoy, of Fenton.

Last month, he and his wife decided to drop their landline and see if they can get by with cell phones.

"We're really watching pennies where we can," FitzRoy said. "We were going through our budget, looking for places where we could cut costs."

The move trimmed nearly $90 from their monthly budget.

And at the age of 63, FitzRoy represents another change. The typical wireless-only consumer falls into the 18-34 age bracket and makes less than $50,000 a year, according to Nielsen Mobile, a research firm that studies technology trends.

That younger consumers would favor life without landlines is not surprising. Most of them, after all, have grown up in a world that revolves around a cell phone, rather than one attached to the kitchen wall.

"It's just natural for teens and young adults. They know nothing else," said Michelle Groves, director of sales in St. Louis for U.S. Cellular.

But increasingly, older adults are making, or at least considering, the switch.

During the first quarter of the year, Nielsen Mobile asked landline customers if they were thinking about dropping their traditional phones. Of those who answered "yes," 35 percent were in the 35 to 54 age group. Three months later, when asked the same question, the number rose to 44 percent.

Natural Evolution

Part of that increase is simply a natural evolution that's been taking place for a decade as cell phones have morphed from luxury to necessity. But many analysts believe the struggling economy is fueling the move. And by the year's end, roughly 23.6 million households, one out of every five, may be without a traditional landline. That's more than double the number found just three years ago.

"It's accelerated a trend that was occurring already," said Jeff Kagan, a telecommunications industry analyst based in Marietta, Ga. "It's a little extra nudge."

When carriers lose wired customers, it doesn't necessarily mean they've been lost to wireless providers. Some are switching to wired lines through their cable providers. Others are moving to fiber-optic based services like AT&T's U-verse.

Clearly, though, there has been a significant shift in how people value their wired and wireless phones. "If this economy had happened 10 years ago, they would have dropped their cell phones. Today, that's switched," Kagan said.

For those making the leap, it's worth more than $30 a month on average in savings, according to research by Nielsen Mobile. The average phone bill is actually closer to $40, but a chunk of that tends to wind up in the pockets of cell phone carriers.

That was the case for Iris Wright, of St. Charles, who used to pay $60 a month for a landline. She and her husband dropped it a couple of months ago after realizing telemarketers were using it more than anyone else.

After buying extra minutes for the cell phone plans, they figure to save nearly $500 a year.

"That played a big part in today's economy," said Wright, who said she could no longer justify two different phone services. "Why pay double for it?"

Not So Fast

But not everyone sees it as such an easy choice. In fact, for some, there really is no choice.

Many home alarm systems, for example, require a phone line in order to be monitored. People who own fax machines often need a phone line to send and receive data. And some satellite television systems need a phone line to keep certain services working.

And there are the more practical reasons, like the one that keeps Robert Behm, of Kirkwood, hooked on a landline.

With two children, ages 3 and 10, at home, Behm is a long way from feeling comfortable cutting the cord.

"I think of the home phone as being the family's phone and the cell phone as my phone," Behm said. "I need to be sure I can reach the kids or they can reach me at any time."

There are other, admittedly minor, hassles. Like what to do with all of your old phones if you do go wireless.

That was more than just an afterthought for Stella Spalt, a Kirkwood woman who cut off her landline in September after transferring that phone number to her cell phone.

She was left with a dozen useless phones. Most have since been given to family or friends. All except for one old push-button model that no one seems to want.

"We had phones all over the house. In the attic. The basement," she said. "Seriously, I put them everywhere."