Consumers are choosing the convenience of wireless services over installing an additional wired line, which will result in the displacement of 20 million access lines by 2005, according to a new study by IDC.

IDC says this transference will present both great market opportunities for wireless carriers and a major threat to wireline carriers.

As wireless prices continue to fall to landline service levels, people are using wireless devices in more traditional wireline environments such as home and work, said Scott Ellison, program director, Wireless and Mobile Communications.

He added, "Wireless use is now so pervasive that it is seen as a standard and acceptable way to communicate in most environments."

According to IDC’s annual survey of U.S. households with wireless users, the number of users who reported using their wireless phones at home increased by 40.9 percent and at work by 58.8 percent from 1999 to 2000.

• Prices of wireless service plans continue to decline.
• Very large increments of evening and weekend local and long distance calling continue to be widely bundled into consumer calling plans at little or no additional cost.
• Wireless networks continue to improve geographic coverage with continued network build-outs.