Blog neighbor Bob Schwartz brings to my attention South Dakota's remarkable lag in cell phone adoption. Now one might think slow uptake of cell phones here on the prairie would be no surprise. We're a sparsely populated state, and it's hard for the free market to justify putting up enough towers to broadcast reliable signal to rural areas with so few people per square mile (paging Kristi Noem on the rural public broadcasting argument). PUC Commissioner Steve Kolbeck reaches for that argument, as would I.
But rural geography is apparently not the barrier to cell phone adoption. South Dakota has the lowest percentage of adults in households with cell phones, just 48%, but neighboring Iowa has the highest, 92%. We have the lowest percentage of adults who say the cell phone is their main calling contact, just 25%, but sprawling Texas has the highest on that metric, 53%.
Ten states have more than 30% of their adult population using cell phones exclusively, no home landline: Arkansas, Mississippi, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas. At the other end of the spectrum, eight states have less than 17% of their aduls going strictly cell: New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. Our 16% on that count is half the rate in North Dakota. And in the other direction, 51% of us report having landlines and no cell phones, the highest rate in the country. The next highest landline-only rate? 37%, in Montana.
Commissioner Kolbeck shares my puzzlement:
"It really surprises me," Kolbeck said. "For as mobile as people are in South Dakota and as remote as we are? I mean, everybody and their dog seems to have a cellphone, but they must be keeping their landline as that backup" [Alan Fram, "Abandoning the Landline," AP via KTVL.com, 2011.04.20].
Mr. Schwartz cites South Dakota's low wages as a potential depressant of cell phone uptake. But survey lead author Stephen Blumberg says low-income folks are more likely to drop landlines and use only cell phones. Blumberg says young people and renters go cell sooner; he points to older, wealthier populations as the reason places like New Jersey are at the low end of the cell adoption list.
The South Dakota Telecommunications Association tells RCJ's David Montgomery our adherence to our landlines "probably... speaks... to the quality of service" its member phone companies deliver. Yeah, right.... Blumberg's comment to Montgomery that it could be sampling error seems more plausible than that we all love Qwest. Update 11:39 CDT: Ah! but see important comment from Greg Dean below!
But where's the fun in sampling error? Maybe it's some remarkable social phenomenon! So here's your chance to get published in the academic journals, fellow armchair socioeconomists! Figure out why South Dakota is such an anomaly in cell phone adoption.
Worth noting: all this data comes from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC sees cell phone adoption as a health issue because it affects how we conduct phone surveys and gather information about public health. Lagging cell phone adoption in South Dakota could also impact rural health care delivery: smart phones are changing how doctors and patients interact and share medical information. Anyone studying health information technology (wait, that would be me and several dozen others at DSU!) needs to recognize that the benefits of health IT that may accrue in other rural areas may not arise as quickly here in South Dakota, where, quite inexplicably, we aren't carrying as much potential health IT around in our pockets.
And no, there's no evidence that by not adopting cell phones, South Dakotans are reducing their risk of brain cancer.
Cory, the reason I see for the wage issue being a factor in the lower than average number of South Dakotan's going the way of the cell phone is the fact that we have historically had few choices for cell carriers.
I would cut the chord completely if it wasn't for the fact that the cell coverage in Canistota sucks making it too unreliable for a home phone replacement. Many other South Dakotan's are in the same boat hence the low numbers of cell phone exclusives. Then throw in the fact that many of those rural folks are unable to afford both, keeping the landline is often the best choice.
Coverage and choice is slowly getting better, Mr Wiken's issues with AT&T aside, and with that I expect our numbers of exclusive cell phone owners to increase.
If you have DirecTV, as we do, you need to have a land line. So while my wife and I both have cell phones, we also have a land line.
I basically use my cell phone only when traveling, (especially in winter), or if I'm somewhere where I need to contact someone (like meeting someone at a fair or a sporting event, for instance). Otherwise, I don't use it a lot, and I rarely check to see if I have messages. I'm not a luddite, but I don't feel any particular need to be "on call" for people 24/7. However, that's probably just me.
I'm another one who only uses the cell phone for traveling, especially in winter - plus I'm on a three-way bundle with Midcontinent, which is cable, internet and land-line.
Actually Chris, a land line is not required anymore for DirecTv. It is helpful (and cheaper) for buying PPV and sports subscriptions but none of my receivers are connected to a landline. My DVR though is connected to my cable modem.
@BSchwartz
That's what we would have thought too, though when we had our equipment upgraded a few months ago, we were told we needed the landline. Maybe it's something to do with our house. We don't have a cable modem anywhere near the TV, nor did we have equipment for a wireless connection to the receivers.
Cory -- Hey , just wanted to point out a couple of things for clarification purposes. First, your beloved Qwest is not one of our association's members. SDTA is mainly comprised of member-owned cooperatives such as Golden West, Alliance, ITC and TrioTel, as well as the state's small privately owned, municipal and tribal companies.
These companies do a great job of delivering voice, cable and broadband services to customers across the state. Our member companies serve 80% of the state's geography (mainly small town and rural areas) and our companies have been very aggressive about bringing state of the art services and fiber optic technology to customers in all corners of the state. Hope this additional info help.
Yes, Greg, that info does help! Thank you for that clarification. Now can I get service from one of your co-op members to replace Qwest? Nertz! Your map indicates no co-ops around Lake Herman.
My guess is that many rural South Dakotans who want a good internet connection get them as part of a package that includes landline service. I am not particularly thrilled with the idea of seeing anything on the internet in a 2 in diagonal screen coupled to absurd service charges.
Conservatives do not change and take what is cheaper.
@Greg, I am guessing it is your job to promote the "association" but having been forced to deal with one of your members for years, I wouldn't be that proud. I am just one service away from getting Golden West out of my house completely and the minute I can find a cheaper broadband provider I will have succeeded.
Apparently Golden West's state of the art services have yet to reach my neighborhood as all I got/get was their limited services for exorbitant prices...
Roger, I think you are right. I also think it goes further: conservatives are less likely to trust new technologies. I also agree with Chris. I have only a "TracFone," sign up for about 400 minutes once a year, and never use them all.
God and mammon both know I'm no Luddite, but I'm also deeply skeptical of trusting technology too much. Look at the furor over the latest iPhone's tracking capabilities and its apparent vulnerability to hacking.
I have electrical tape over my Webcam lens and a piece of sticky felt over the microphone hole; not that I sing the Horst Wessel song naked in front of my computer, but you know, those things can be switched on without the user's knowledge. A Webcam did help the cops catch the guy who murdered that Chinese girl though.
Oh, yes, I do still have a landline, of course. My router is hard-wired too.
Does this have something to do with the lack of broadband in SD? I know a lot of people out here in farm land who can only use the internet on dialup so they have to have a land line phone. I only live about 7 miles from the edge of Madison and I have no other option but slow dialup or expensive satellite because cable and DSL don't reach and Sioux Valley's microwave and WIMAX signals are too weak. Cell phones aren't real great out here either. We live in a relatively well populated area near Mitchell Madison Brookings and Sioux Falls. I can't imagine how bad it would be in unpopulated areas north and west.