Almost a quarter of people now have no fixed-line telephone in their homes, reflecting a cultural shift towards using mobiles for everyday communications.
The trend away from fixed-line telephones is most pronounced among young, single people and lower-income groups, according to a survey published yesterday.
The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) survey found that just 76 per cent of people now have a fixed line in their homes, compared to 84 per cent of people who own a mobile.
In the final quarter of 2004, a similar survey found 79 per cent of people had a fixed-line phone in their home while 81 per cent of people owned a mobile phone.
Yet, despite the growing trend toward using mobiles, the survey highlights that there is dissatisfaction with the level of service provided by the mobile industry.
Of particular concern to consumers living close to the Border with Northern Ireland is the cost of using their mobiles when roaming in the area. More than half of respondents in the survey said they were "very unsatisfied" with the cost of cross-Border mobile calls. Some 24 per cent said they were "unsatisfied".
The survey also found that 63 per cent of people living close to the Border with Northern Ireland have experienced their mobile signal inadvertently switching to a British mobile operator. Some 84 per cent of these people expressed concern that they had been charged more for inadvertently using a Northern Ireland network while in the Republic.
Almost half of the people surveyed said that there was not enough choice of mobile phone provider in the marketplace at competitive prices. This view was most prevalently felt in the Connaught and Ulster regions, where 62 per cent of people said there was not enough choice.
Despite this poor satisfaction level, only 6 per cent of people switched mobile provider in the past three months and only 9 per cent of subscribers said they considered switching their provider.
The survey also found that two-thirds of people now subscribe to a pay-television service in the Republic, a trend that is particularly high among the young and people with higher incomes.
Almost one-third of households subscribe to digital television services, with 67 per cent of those people with digital TV subscribing to Sky television.
The survey found that 5 per cent of people with digital television used it to buy products or services in the past three months. pay per view movies are the most popular services closely followed by sports programming.
ComReg-commissioned survey was conducted by Amárach Consulting. It involved interviews with 1,000 residential consumers aged 15 to 74. The questions about mobile phone use in Border areas used a sample of 250 people.
