Nielsen Company released a study yesterday predicting that 1 in 5 households will not have a landline telephone by the end of 2008.

The economic slowdown is a short-term factor, but other factors seem to be driving the long-term "cord cutting" trend. Significant savings can be achieved by eliminating the landline, an average of $40 per month, according to Nielsen. This seems to be why the majority of cord cutters have lower incomes, 59% have household incomes of $40,000 or less. Additionally, Nielsen points out that:

• Smaller households, with just one or two residents, are more likely to cut the cord than larger households
• Moving or changing jobs are the biggest life events associated with cord cutting: 31 percent of cord cutters moved prior to cord cutting and 22 percent changed jobs
• Wireless substitutors tend to use their mobile phones more than their landline peers, 45 percent more per phone, but still save an average $33 per month in a household of one subscriber when they cut the cord.

Read more at: http://www.nielsen.com/media/2008/pr_080917.html

The issue of cost is a critical one for people with disabilities, who tend to have lower incomes than people without disabilities. At the same time, there seems to be an age dimension to cord cutting, with younger people more likely to go totally wireless than older individuals.