Internet phone, most affordable and reliable way to stay in touch.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: With globalization increasing every day, people around the world are finding new ways to stay in touch. Recently, internet phone services have come into vogue as the most affordable and reliable way to do this.
According to a new study put out today by the Pew Research Center (PRC) in Washington, DC, internet phone calling may already be the next big thing in communications. Here are some facts and figures (courtesy of the PRC and other sources where noted):
50 – rough estimate of the percentage of Americans, in the year 2000, who used the internet regularly.
80 – percentage of Americans, in late 2012, who use the internet regular.
30 – percentage of Americans, in late 2012, who had made or received some sort of internet phone call.
91 – percentage of American adults with a cell phone, as of May 2013. Of those, 56% have a smart phone; of those, 28% have an Android, 25% have an iPhone, and 4% have a Blackberry.
29 – percentage of Americans who claim that they “can’t imagine living without” their mobile communications device.
2 billion – the number of minutes that users of Skype spend in one day, according to an infographic put out by the company on April 3rd of this year. That equates to roughly 33 million hours of face-to-face communication via the internet on a daily basis.
51.7 – percentage of American households, in 2012, that either do not have or do not use their landline phone regularly or at all, an increase of 1.8% from the previous year. This is according to a CDC report published in December of last year. Wireless/Cellular telephones are preferred by nearly every demographic surveyed.
9.4 – percentage of American households that have a landline as their sole source of phone communication. Rapidly dwindling usage of landline phones has prompted various providers to cut landline services completely, with fears across the country that landline phones could quickly become completely obsolete.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com