More Mobiles Than Landlines in Iowa

A report from Iowa's Utilities Board has found that at the middle of last year, the number of cellphone users in the US state exceeded the number of landlines by a total of 400,000. The report says that the total number of wireless connections in Iowa as of June 30, 2007, is 1,943,334. Wireless carriers are serving at least 97 percent of all Iowa communities.

Wireless numbers reported as part of NANPA numbering resource data for Iowa indicate that the number of wireless numbers in the state increased 28 percent from 2003 to 2005 and 23 percent from 2005 to 2007. The growth in number utilization from 2003 to 2007 is 57 percent.

According to the survey data, US Cellular holds the greatest market share in Iowa.

Nationally, the number of households with only a wireless telephone continues to increase. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that approximately 13.6 percent of households during the January to June 2007 time period had at least one wireless telephone, but did not have a traditional landline telephone. This percentage may be high for Iowa, because of quality of reception in rural areas where, presumably, there are fewer cell towers.