Harris Interactive survey says mobile phone-only users continue

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Apr 7, 2008 by Marie Price

Cell phone usage is on the increase as Americans use fewer landline telephones, studies show.

A new Harris Interactive survey shows one in five adults do not have a landline phone. Seventy-nine percent do, down from 81 percent about a year ago.

Almost nine in 10 adults (89 percent) have a wireless phone, up from the 77 percent indicated in a late 2006 Harris Poll analysis.

The Harris survey indicates that one in five adults do not have a landline telephone, and one in seven now (14 percent) use only cell phones. The latter statistic is up from 11 percent in 2006.

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that, at 14.9 percent, adults in the southern region, which includes Oklahoma, are more likely than others to live in households with only wireless phones.

The Harris survey found that of the 14 percent who use only cell phones, 35 percent live in the South.

According to the Harris survey, one-third of 18- to 29-year-olds use only a cell phone or the Internet to make calls.

A scant 9 percent only use a landline phone, down from 18 percent in 2006.

Although some equate more substantial use of technology with young people, about half of U.S. adults who only use a cell phone are 30 years of age or older.

About one in six (15 percent) adults use the Internet to make phone calls, which is down slightly from 2006 (16 percent).

Seventy-five percent of U.S. adults use multiple approaches to make calls, up from 67 percent in the last Harris survey.

The Harris survey found the incidence of cell phone-only usage among students to be 30 percent, compared with 21 percent from the earlier CDC study.