"You'll never take our landlines - but we won't use them..."

Despite the hundreds of millions of mobiles sold every year and a saturated UK handset market, it seems older people are rather attached to their landlines while young people are quite happy to bin them.

According to a survey by consultants KPMG, 80 per cent of people wouldn't swap their fixed-line phones for a mobile. A new generation is establishing the trend of never having a home phone, the survey found – with 10 per cent of 18-25-year-olds only owning a mobile.

A further 14 per cent said they're looking to get rid of their landlines over the next five years.

While the vast majority of people don't want to let go of their fixed-line phone, revenues are likely to head downwards sharply if the mobile operators decide to start trimming their tariffs.

A recent report from Capgemini and business school Insead showed that consumers would push more voice minutes onto mobiles from fixed lines if their service providers cut their prices.

Research firm Frost and Sullivan found the number of minutes of voice call fell five per cent in 2003.

The operators aren't taking the trend lying down. BT has plunged millions into pushing its 'new wave' services including broadband and has also been the first to launch fixed-to-mobile texting.