Web Survey Bibliography
Title Cell Phones and RDD Coverage of the Low Income Population
Author Hall, J. W., Touzani, M., Zheng, Y.
Year 2004
Access date 11.06.2004
Abstract There is much interest in the potential impact of mobile (cell) telephones on surveys. While it is possible that cell phone numbers can be used to more efficiently contact sample members, there are concerns that the phenomenon of cell-only households will affect the coverage of RDD sampling frames and that the ineherent mobility of cell phones will affect surveys’ ability to target respondents geographically. This study examines the prevalence and use of cell phones among households who lack or have reported substantial interruptions in traditional land-line service and compares cell phone use in those households to that of other households. Data for this paper were collected as part an inperson screening of households for the Community Tracking Survey (CTS) to identify those with recent significant interruptions in telephone service. These households were sampled using area probabilty methods from a random subset of 12 (urban) site of the 60 sites (PSUs) in the CTS sample. The measure of size for sampling was the number of households estimated to have had interruptions in service, so households screened have lower incomes than the general population. Approximately 4,000 households will be screened for current round (and their data will be used for this paper). As part of screening, questions were added that asked about household ownership of cell phones and whether members received calls on them more than once or twice a month. Preliminary analysis has been done with of a partial data set of 744 screener interviews. Of this group 41 percent of households report cell phone service and 93 percent of these receive calls on the cell phones. The figures do not vary by whether the household currently has a working land-line telephone or reported a significant interruption in service. Approximately 9 percent could be classified as potential “cell only” households.
Year of publication2004
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
