There is a slow trend to mobile only connections. I thought it was only a generation Y thing, but we have some friends (generation Ys) who also now have no fixed lines. We have had to change our fixed line phone bundle to include a unlimited mobile calls as a result (to reduce our own communication costs).
There are older reports that in Australia there is some migration to mobile only, and this has not significantly affected fixed line internet connection…but yet to find more recent reports. There are overseas trends which it is expected that Australia would be similar.
There are reports of such trends in other countries (such as this one) and expect that the same trend will occur in Australia as mobility and cost become more important than high speed fixed line connections.
The NBN responded to media inquiries about the competition with next gen mobile networks, but they have been silent since 2015.
ACMA in their 2016-17 report (a long time in the technology space also stated:
Ongoing shift to mobile
In June 2017, 36 per cent of Australian adults were mobile-phone-only, going without a fixed-line telephone in their home.
While mobile phone use appears to have reached saturation levels, demand for smartphones continues to increase. At June 2017, eight in 10 (81 per cent) Australian adults owned a smartphone, up 17 percentage points from 64 per cent five years ago. This reflects consumer demand for new technologies rather than an increase in subscriber numbers.
Mobile phones were clearly the most used device to access the internet, both in terms of the proportion of people using and frequency of use. Eighty-four per cent of online Australians used a mobile to access the internet at least once a day, well ahead of laptop computers (69 per cent) and desktop computers (54 per cent).
Apps proved a popular way to communicate with family and friends. In the six months to June 2017, 88 per cent of online Australians used an app to communicate via either messages or voice or video calls."
The same report also outlined that in in 2016, 12 per cent of the American adult population were smartphone-only internet users (a smartphone but no broadband internet connection at home)—an increase of four per cent since 2013. I expect this number in the US would have increased since 2016.
A good friend who lectures in this space indicated earlier in the year that he believes that Australia is similar to the US percentages and would be increasing principally to cost and improved mobile speeds.
I’ll try to hunt for some Australian figures and might see if my friends has some (even though he is currently working in Brazil).
Deloitte has also done some predictions…and what they think can be found here: