More Americans go for cell phones, drop landlines

MORE AMERICANS GO FOR CELL PHONES, DROP LANDLINES
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Ryan Kim]
Not so many years ago, the cell phone was considered a luxury item while the landline was standard in every household. My, how times have changed. Today, the cell phone is regarded as a necessity by a growing number of Americans -- especially the young and the poor -- while the residential phone is becoming optional. The trend, according to a new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is not limited to just one or two demographic groups but is slowly expanding to include all age and income groups. According to the survey of 13,056 households across the nation, 29.1 percent of people ages 25 to 29 and 25.2 percent of the respondents ages 18 to 24 have abandoned residential phones and rely solely on cell phones. Among poor households, more than 1 in 5 (22.4 percent) have cut the cord, about twice the rate of other respondents. The survey says 12.8 percent of households rely solely on cell phones for communication, up from 3.2 percent in the beginning of 2003, when the semi-annual survey began.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/15/PHONES.TMP

* Disaster alert? Check your cellphone.
California weighs using text messages to warn residents during emergencies.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0515/p02s01-ussc.html