By Claire Reilly

More Australians are unplugging their landline phones in favour of mobile devices, with almost half of Gen Y consumers ditching home phones altogether.

A recent survey of Australian consumers, conducted by consumer satisfaction researcher Canstar Blue, found that 45 per cent of Gen Y respondents choose not to have a landline, compared to 25 per cent of Gen X and 7 per cent of Baby Boomer consumers.

“These survey findings support Australian industry data showing demand for landlines continues to fall, particularly amongst the Generation Y population,” said Canstar Blue manager, Rebecca Logan.

“This being said, most consumers haven’t yet said goodbye to their fixed lines for three key reasons - the heavily discounted STD and international call rates, linked broadband access able to handle ‘bandwidth hungry’ applications and the ability to connect with fax machines.”

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The survey, which gathered responses from 1,247 consumers who had purchased from a mobile phone retailer in the last 12 months, also tracked consumer satisfaction with the big mobile phone retailers across the country.

“The results show Australians value friendly, responsive customer service and reasonable prices most highly over the range of products and accessories when it comes to mobile phone retailers,” said Logan.

The highest-rated retailer was Crazy Johns, which scored the maximum five-star rating across the touch points of value for money, service, clarity of advice and overall satisfaction, as well as four-star ratings for range and phone accessories.

Telstra followed closely behind with a four-star overall rating, and full marks for range and phone accessories, while Optus and Vodafone scored four and three stars respectively across all categories of consumer satisfaction. All Phones and Virgin Mobile each received a combination of four and three star scores.

Finally, the survey also tracked the ways consumers use their phones, and how they pay for their service.

Canstar Blue found that 38 per cent of respondents check social media sites on their mobile phones throughout the working day, and 29 per cent of respondents opted for pre-paid mobile plans rather than signing a contract.

“The results show a sizeable group of Australians have decided no bills and no contract is the way to go where their mobile phone is concerned,” Logan said. “We found pre-paid mobile phone plans were popular across each demographic and amongst both sexes.”

The Canstar Blue table showing how consumers rate mobile phone retailers.