Canadians hanging on to land-line phones

Despite the popularity of cellphones, 83 percent of Canadians still maintain an old-fashioned land-line, a survey published Tuesday showed. The poll of 1,516 people was conducted by the Angus Reid group in the last week of May for the Primus Canada communications corporation. The survey results said 67 percent of the respondents say their extended family members contact them primarily at their home number, followed by friends at 63 percent, parents at 49 percent, spouse or partner at 47 percent and children at 35 percent. Rob Warden, vice president of residential services, said there's an apparent affection for the old-fashioned, hard-wired telephone. "Home phones provide a very reliable means of communication that you can't always get from a mobile phone, and clearly Canadians still value the personal touch of a phone call," he said. As for other communication preferences, 33 percent of respondents said e-mail was their first choice, followed by 30 percent who used phones, 23 percent who used online social media and 11 percent favored text messaging, the releases said. The survey had a 2.5 percentage point margin of error, the polling firm said.