A survey for one of Derry’s largest employers, outsourcing company Firstsource Solutions, has revealed that 61% of the North’s adults use their domestic landline once a week or more.
The North may have the highest number of mobile users in Britain at 94 % but the landline still plays an important role with a higher take up in rural areas (89%) than urban areas (78%).
The domestic landline particularly proves to be most popular amongst the over 55s, with 86% of this age group saying they use it at least once a week.
One in three over 55s say they use a domestic landline every day.
The survey also shows that, despite common perceptions that young people only use their mobile phones, a quarter (26%) of 18-24 year olds say they use a domestic landline once a week or more.
Around 19% of NI adults never use their domestic landline and only 4% don’t have a domestic landline at all.
The YouGov survey also examined the type of calls adults make on their domestic landlines.
It shows that 78% of adults here use their domestic landline to phone family, proving the popularity of “friends and family” packages available on the market.
The survey also shows that 47% of NI adults use their domestic landline to make important calls that need good or secure reception.
Iain Regan, Global Head of Sales andMarketing, Customer Management, Firstsource Solutions, said: “The home landline still plays an important role in the lives of UK adults despite the huge growth of mobile phones and VoIP systems such as Skype.
“Communications service providers have developed attractive and user friendly packages for home phone use and also attracted customers through offering bundles incorporating the landline as part of wider TV and broadband home packages.
“There is also no doubt that domestic landline is popular because it remains one of the most reliable and secure ways to communicate.”
The survey, which interviewed over 2,000 British adults, was carried out by YouGov on behalf of Firstsource Solutions, a leading business process outsourcing company, one of Derry’s largest employers which has two call centres in the centre for Sky and O2 customers.
The research was carried out by YouGov on behalf of Firstsource between 30 July and 1 August 2013 with a representative sample of 2,087 adults.
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