Post by unlawflcombatnt on Jul 27, 2009 14:45:02 GMT -6
Below is an interesting article giving an estimate of how prevalent cell phone usage.
from the Sacramento Bee:
Wireless vs. landline
Friday, Jul. 24, 2009
by Gina Kim
"Millions of cost-cutting Americans are asking: Ditch the landline phone and go completely wireless, or keep paying two bills for dependability and peace of mind? Many have already clipped the cord.
Wireless-only households have surpassed those solely dependent on landlines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks the information....
There were 270 million cell phones in use in December 2008, the most recent figure available from the trade group CTIA-The Wireless Association. That figure's up from 110 million in 2000, and it means 87 percent of Americans have a phone they take everywhere, the group found.
More than 20% of households were wireless-only in December, and another 15% said they took most calls on cell phones instead of landlines, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Just 17% of households had a landline without a cell phone.
"I have both a landline and a cell phone and every time I pay that landline bill I wonder why," said Stephen Blumberg, senior scientist at the National Center for Health Statistics.
Blumberg fell into tracking phone use in 2003, when the CDC realized that people giving up landlines could cause potential bias in the center's health surveys, which are taken over the phone. The studies have found that home ownership, not age, is the biggest predictor of a wireless home – renters are 4 times less likely to have a landline, Blumberg said.
There were also health differences between those with and without landlines. Wireless-only adults are more likely to smoke, binge drink, be without health insurance and not wear a seat belt, according to Blumberg.
The CDC doesn't know why this is, but collects the information to mitigate distortion in surveys.
"It may be as simple as persons who are wireless-only are more likely to be out with friends, socializing outside the home," Blumberg said....
Wireless and telecom industry analyst Jeff Kagan doesn't see the landline phone dying completely, just a transformation of the industry. Everything is becoming connected, he said, so that one day a person will be able to talk on a cell phone that will transfer seamlessly to a home phone when the user walks through the door, and even connect to the Internet and TV. There are already Internet-based phone calls with Skype and Vonage....
Businesses are letting go of landlines at a much slower pace than private phone customers, ensuring the job security of Jose Olagues, a telecom analyst for California State University, Sacramento.
Landlines are generally cheaper than cell phones, Olagues said. And businesses need the dependability of phones that don't cut out or run out of battery life.
Still, the 35-year-old Olagues ditched his landline at home when AT&T started offering DSL broadband without a phone number last year."
www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2051926.html?mi_rss=Our%2520Region
from the Sacramento Bee:
Wireless vs. landline
Friday, Jul. 24, 2009
by Gina Kim
"Millions of cost-cutting Americans are asking: Ditch the landline phone and go completely wireless, or keep paying two bills for dependability and peace of mind? Many have already clipped the cord.
Wireless-only households have surpassed those solely dependent on landlines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks the information....
There were 270 million cell phones in use in December 2008, the most recent figure available from the trade group CTIA-The Wireless Association. That figure's up from 110 million in 2000, and it means 87 percent of Americans have a phone they take everywhere, the group found.
More than 20% of households were wireless-only in December, and another 15% said they took most calls on cell phones instead of landlines, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Just 17% of households had a landline without a cell phone.
"I have both a landline and a cell phone and every time I pay that landline bill I wonder why," said Stephen Blumberg, senior scientist at the National Center for Health Statistics.
Blumberg fell into tracking phone use in 2003, when the CDC realized that people giving up landlines could cause potential bias in the center's health surveys, which are taken over the phone. The studies have found that home ownership, not age, is the biggest predictor of a wireless home – renters are 4 times less likely to have a landline, Blumberg said.
There were also health differences between those with and without landlines. Wireless-only adults are more likely to smoke, binge drink, be without health insurance and not wear a seat belt, according to Blumberg.
The CDC doesn't know why this is, but collects the information to mitigate distortion in surveys.
"It may be as simple as persons who are wireless-only are more likely to be out with friends, socializing outside the home," Blumberg said....
Wireless and telecom industry analyst Jeff Kagan doesn't see the landline phone dying completely, just a transformation of the industry. Everything is becoming connected, he said, so that one day a person will be able to talk on a cell phone that will transfer seamlessly to a home phone when the user walks through the door, and even connect to the Internet and TV. There are already Internet-based phone calls with Skype and Vonage....
Businesses are letting go of landlines at a much slower pace than private phone customers, ensuring the job security of Jose Olagues, a telecom analyst for California State University, Sacramento.
Landlines are generally cheaper than cell phones, Olagues said. And businesses need the dependability of phones that don't cut out or run out of battery life.
Still, the 35-year-old Olagues ditched his landline at home when AT&T started offering DSL broadband without a phone number last year."
www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2051926.html?mi_rss=Our%2520Region