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At 1:30 EDT today, the results of a survey of 1,005 Americans, and a separate one of 110,000 prepaid cell users, will be revealed. Nicholas P. Sullivan, a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be presenting the results. So what should we expect to hear? That the cell phone can be and is a powerful income-generating tool for low-income individuals. Well, at least that’s the interesting part. They’ll also talk about how a large percentage of Americans have used cell phones in emergency situations (with an 81 percent penetration rate, that’s unsurprising).

The results will also supposedly show that “Cell phones are now preferred by a majority of Americans to traditional landline phones - even when consumers are forced to choose one at the expense of the other.” I suspect, however, that these results are skewed by a small sample size (the 1,000 Americans, not the 110,000 prepaid users). While we’re moving towards a cell-only society, I don’t think we’re quite there yet.

As far as the interesting part of the survey goes, it specifically says that “a push to put cell phones into the hands of the 38 percent of America’s poorest households now without them could generate billions of additional dollars for those who need it most.” It sounds like a novel idea, but I wonder how it will be effective.

I’d think that getting Internet access to these households would be more important. There are opportunities abound on the Internet, while I’m not sure what someone would get out of merely having a cell phone for voice and text. Now, if we’re talking about hooking them up with iPhones, well, then we’re talking about something completely different.

I’m definitely looking forward to hearing Mr. Sullivan’s findings, though.

Posted By : Joe
Posted at : March 25th, 2008 - 10:30 am
Filed under : Prepaid Phones