Mortgage banking company Hawaii HomeLoans is tossing out its wireline phones in favor of wireless ones.

The move, according to Hawaii HomeLoans President Tom Zimmerman, is aimed at gaining a competitive edge in Hawaii's housing market. The phone of choice for Hawaii HomeLoans: Sprint PCS Phones and PCS Connection Cards.

"The decision to establish a wireless workforce stemmed from the desire to create efficiencies. We looked at all the options and decided that with a highly mobile workforce like ours, it made sense to go totally wireless right from the beginning," said Zimmerman. "The coverage and technology from Sprint gives our employees a quick way to process paperwork, access credit reports and obtain loan approvals right in the customer's home or office. This means less waiting for the customer and less travel time for our employees."

Hawaii HomeLoans said that going completely wireless has not only helped provide competitive sales advantages, it has also created new cost efficiencies. Hawaii HomeLoans uses PCS Shared Minutes, a business pricing program option where all employees share a "bucket" of minutes, reducing the likelihood of overage charges. Additionally, they use the PCS to PCS Calling option, so all employees can call other Sprint customers on their PCS Phones without limit, all for a fixed monthly charge.

According to IDC, more than five million people in the U.S. have gone completely wireless in their communications and 10 percent of all wireless phone users indicate that they are likely to disconnect a landline phone and use only wireless service within the next 12 months.

Scott Ellison, IDC's program director for wireless and mobile communications, said it's not surprising that some of the first industries to go totally wireless are verticals, such as finance and construction, because employees need to be reached immediately, but they are not always at their desks.

"Always being reachable and having features like caller ID and the ability to access real-time information have tremendous advantages that a lot of individuals and business people don't want to be without," said Ellison. "Being connected wirelessly allows you to take your business wherever it needs to go. This means more flexibility for employees, increased productivity, and the ability to be highly responsive to customers."