There was a time not too long ago when the average person didn’t have a cell phone. Even though most of us are old enough to remember those times, it’s hard to believe that we ever got along without the mobile phone because it’s become such an important part of our every day lives. In fact, there are many signs that indicate that the mobile phone makes the most sense as the primary phone for the average person. People are ready to ditch their landlines in favor of the mobile phone. The smart people have done it already; so why haven’t you?

Here are ten trends that indicate that it’s time to make your mobile phone a primary phone if you haven’t done so already:

1. Movement towards flat rate calling plans. One of the biggest reasons that people kept hanging on to their landlines was that it was too expensive to make calls on their mobile phones during peak calling times. People who have to make business calls can’t wait until after seven or nine at night to be able to fit those calls into their “free minutes”. However, carriers across the globe are starting to make the transition towards flat rate calling plans. Your landline lets you call unlimited local numbers for a flat rate; your mobile phone may now offer the chance to call unlimited local and international numbers at a flat rate. That’s an even better deal than the landline offers. Plus you get unlimited text messaging and even Wi-Fi service on some plans. This makes it increasingly possible to use your mobile phone at any time of day or night without fear of those excessive “over your minutes” costs. This makes people a lot more inclined to ditch their landlines.

2. Interest in full integration with the rest of your life. More and more people are interested in having a holistic life rather than one that’s sectioned off. We see this in the working world in the sense that a growing number of people are working from home, working flexible hours and otherwise mingling work into their daily lives instead of just doing the old nine-to-five thing. People want their mobile phones to accommodate this same kind of integration. They don’t want a work number and a home number; they want one number that they can be reached at whether they’re in the office or telecommuting from a beach on some tropical island. Advanced cell phone capabilities offer further integration in the sense that you can access your computer documents from your Wi-Fi-enabled phone. In today’s world, having everything available on one phone just makes sense and your landline is not the phone that can do that for you.
3. Increased worldwide mobile phone coverage. Yes, there are still pockets of the world that don’t get cell phone coverage or that get spotty cell phone coverage. However those pockets have decreased considerably in both size and number over the past few years so it’s increasingly possible to make calls from anywhere. Even public transportation throughout the world now often allows you to stay connected while making your phone calls. As a result, you don’t need a backup landline in case your mobile phone doesn’t get coverage because it’s probably going to get that coverage.
4. Advances in technology that reduce previous problems of mobile phones. In the past, mobile phones had a lot of problems that limited their use as a primary phone. They had batteries that didn’t last long enough to support throughout-the-day calling. They didn’t work too well indoors. The call quality on them was low. Advances in technology (including extended battery life, femtocell systems for indoor wireless coverage and improved call quality) now make it possible to use the mobile phone as a primary phone without even thinking twice about it.
5. Development of Fixed Mobile Convergence. This term refers to setting up your wired and wireless worlds so that they connect seamlessly. This is great for people who want to maintain the landline at home but use the mobile phone as a primary phone anyway. As this develops, it is likely that there will be even more increased use of the mobile phone.

6. Growth of Mobile VoIP. VoIP services allow people to make international calls at no cost or a low cost. Increasingly, they also offer the opportunity to use IM services on mobile phones to stay in better contact with all of the people in your life. In recent months, big leaps have been made towards making VoIP go mobile. As mobile VoIP grows, more people are going to want to make use of this service. As they do so, it’s going to become increasingly apparent that the mobile phone is a much better phone for international calling than the landline is.
7. Availability of bundled wireless services. All wireless services are starting to be packaged and sold together by the companies that offer these services. This means that you can get your Wi-Fi Internet, your cable television and your wireless phone service from the same company. Generally, this lowers the cost of each thing that you’re paying for. It also increases the convenience in your life because you’re only paying that one bill.

8. Common use of family and group calling plans. Almost all carriers offer some sort of group rate or family calling plan. What this does is it allows everyone within the group or family to call one another for free. As a result, it makes more sense to call people’s cell phones than to call their home phones and it makes more sense to call people on your mobile phone than to use your landline. In other words, Dad may be at home or he may not be but it makes more sense to call him on the mobile phone because the free call is included in the mobile phone plan.
9. Economic changes require cutting costs wherever you can. Frankly, you need to save money. Prices on everything seem to be going up and there’s very little indication that that’s going to change any time in the near future. You can’t afford to keep paying for a landline and paying for a mobile phone, too. You need the mobile phone. But do you really need the landline?
10. People started ditching the landline years ago. In case you hadn’t heard, most of this really isn’t new news. Many people started using their mobile phones as their primary phones two or three years ago. Ask the average young person living in an urban area if he has a landline and he’s going to laugh at you because he’s known for years that there’s no point in having one anymore. These new trends are just improvements and extensions of the trends that got these people to get rid of their landlines before.