Posted on 12/11/2007 6:38:30 AM PST by Cagey
WASHINGTON (AP) - More than one in eight households have cell phones but lack traditional landline telephones, according to a federal study released Monday that tracks the country's growing dependence on wireless phones.
The data, reported twice a year, suggested that the number of households relying solely on cell phones may be growing more slowly than it had in the past. But the researchers said the slowdown might be due to changes in their survey, including altering the order of some questions and some of the wording.
"We don't know how much reflects reality and how much reflects changes in the questionnaire," said Stephen Blumberg, senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an author of the report.
The report released Monday showed that for the first half of 2007, 14 percent of households had cell phone service but no landline telephones. That was less than 1 percentage point over the second half of 2006 - not a statistically significant difference.
For the second part of 2006, the increase in those households had been about 2 percent over the previous six-month period.
The growth of families reachable only by cell phone has been of special interest to the telephone industry, providers of 911 emergency services, and public and private polling organizations.
Pollsters typically rely on random calls to households with landline telephones, but some have begun reaching out to cell-phone users, which is more expensive and makes it harder to ensure their samples are truly random.
The federal data showed once again that young, poor, male and Hispanic people are likelier to have only wireless telephone service.
Nearly one in five Hispanic adults - 18 percent - have cell phones but no landline phones, the survey showed. That was up from 15 percent in the last half of 2006.
In addition for the first half of 2007,
_11 percent of white adults and 14 percent of black adults had only cell phone service.
_Roughly three in 10 people age 18 to 29 had only wireless telephones - more than double the portion of those age 30 and older who rely only on cell phones.
_14 percent of males and 12 percent of females only had cell phone service.
_About one in five poor people have only cell phones, about double the percentage for those who are not poor.
_59 percent of households have landlines and cell phones, and 24 percent have only landlines.
The National Health Interview Survey, conducted by the CDC, involved in-person interviews with people in 15,996 households conducted from January through June of this year.
About as poor as you have to be to have a landline.
Thanks to pay-as-you-go cellphones, even people of limited means can have a cell phones. Even ATT is now getting out of the pay phone business, folks of limited means are going to have to have cellphones.
Thanks to pay-as-you-go cellphones, even people of limited means can have a cell phones. Even ATT is now getting out of the pay phone business, folks of limited means are going to have to have cellphones.
2. Got rid of my landline last year. A major waste of money, IMHO. Have my office phone and my cell phone, which is all I need, and I am neither poor, nor young (31).
In addition to all the reasons mentioned (mobility, expense) cellphones make sense in single person households. A family of 8 probably needs a landline. A family of 1 is probably crazy to have one.
Look for pollsters to use this survey as a justification to bias their reporting of sample results to favor the Donks in the upcoming elections. As if they really needed an excuse, of course...
If they ever get round to dropping and antenna array in my town, the land line is history. I get lousy reception at my house, though. So I need to keep it, for now.
We use cell phones and satellite internet - no land lines, no DSL, no cable and no dial-up. This works very well for our electronic communication purposes in different states and while traveling in the motor home. Long distance and no roaming charges included:)
It really annoys some how I can sit on a beach, or by a lake, etc., in a beautiful remote part of the country and work on-line with a high speed internet connection and cell phone.
Land lines are no longer necessary...
Well, landlines do have the advantage in that it’s far, far less expensive to make an international call on a landline than on a cellphone.
Even if you buy a calling card, most of them add pretty substantial surcharges to calls made on a cellphones.
Other than that, I see no real advantage to landlines.
I have to have one because I needed DSL service. I work a pretty crazy schedule that pretty much prohibits me from ever waiting around for the cable guy to show up. Getting a DSL modem in the mail and going to it was the way to go.
“How poor are they if they have a cell phone?”
A cell phone is cheaper than a land line.
I pay 60-70 dollars a month for my land line. Rarely use it.
I bought a pay as you go cell phone for $20.00. It costs me 8 cents per minute to use it.
I'm not annoyed you're working on-line but it really bothers me that you are working on a beach, or by a lake, or in some beautiful remote part of the country!
If you are afraid of being tracked, take out the battery.
I would dare say in most situations like this, the cost of adding a 2nd cell phone line just for that purpose is much less than getting a landline.
“Plus, they only see phones that are turned on.”
Actually, on or off, they can see all phones with a live battery in them.
I read that the FBI caught a MOB boss by sending a ‘virus’ to his cell phone that caused it’s microphone to stay on and wire tapped it, even though the phone appeared to be off.
Lesson here, if you’re a MOB boss, you must remove the battery.
Well break out the tiny violins because when I was poor I didn’t have a phone at all. Seriously!
Now that there is all kinds of competition, phone costs just keep dropping. Isn’t Capitalism great?
As I said, if they ever “get it right”, maybe I’ll comply. Bottom line is I never have to worry about dead batteries, “bad cells” (it’s not always bad cells - it’s the phone), bad electronic interference, poor sound quality (how many people are still going “huh?? huh??” and plugging their ears? too many). What is the point of using a cell phone in the house when the better phone is right there? That’s me.
Yes, cell phones now allow the poor to ignore their children at an even greater frequency than before.
No, I see your point. I just gave up on a land phone since NOBODY ever called me on it anyway. It seemed pointless to keep it when only telemarketers and survey takers called me.
We have a landline, but we don’t have a telephone hooked up to it. It’s pretty much just a message service that we access via our cell phones.
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