NEW YORK -- Cell phones are letting more and more people give up their land lines at home. Now business are doing the same.
When Olga Feynshteyn moved into her first apartment 2 years ago she needed a lot of things. But a home phone wasn't one of them. She said, "When I moved out on my own I realized there were so many other bills that I need to put my money towards."
Thanks to cell phones, the National Health Interview Survey found 47 percent of American households said they didn't have a landline in 2015. That's up from just 11 percent in 2006. And young people are leading the way, with about two thirds of 25 to 34-year-olds saying they don't have a home phone.
It's not just at home people are switching away from landlines. Now some businesses are doing the same. Joseph Marazzo owns Virgola, a group of wine bars in New York City, that have no business or reservation lines – by design. Customers can reach out on email. Marazzo said, "I feel like they have a better experience because of it, so ultimately it's a net gain."
Matt Davis from telecommunications analysis firm IDC says the shift away from landlines to mobile phones is here to stay. He said, "There's about half a million new businesses created every year and those new businesses are much more likely to be mobile-centric."
IDC also found more than 75 percent of corporations it surveyed plan to implement unified phone systems that extend to workers' mobile phones.