Home phones go off the hook, cell-only use on the rise - Columbia Missourian

Home phones go off the hook, cell-only use on the rise - Columbia Missourian:

"WASHINGTON — In a high-tech shift accelerated by the recession, the number of U.S. households opting for only cell phones has for the first time surpassed those that just have traditional landlines.

Twenty percent of households had only cells during the last half of 2008, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Wednesday. That was an increase of nearly 3 percentage points over the first half of the year, the largest six-month increase since the government started gathering such data in 2003.

The 20 percent of homes with only cell phones compared to 17 percent with landlines but no cells. ..."

Hmmm. Why is the CDC collecting these data? Is modern technology a disease? Maybe I'd better withdraw the question....

We got our first cell phone in the Fall of 1992 while Susan was approaching full-term with our son. I was doing a fair amount of evening trips, so it seemed a good idea to have a means of communication. At least that was my excuse. A few years later parental health problems prompted us to add a line, and before long it became obvious that what started as a convenient luxury had now become such an ingrained part of our lives that we couldn't imagine live without cell phones.

Every so often we wonder what it would be like if we just ditched the wired line and went solely with the cell service. And we have thus far resisted that impulse. If a massive emergency situation arises, I have more confidence in the land lines than I do in the cellular network.