Gallup polling cell phones now

[Adelante]

One of the more interesting and important changes in the way Americans communicate has been the rise in the use of cell phones over the last 10 years. Of particular importance to survey researchers has been the increase in households which no longer have a traditional landline, but only use cell phones for their telephone communication.

Any change in telephone use is of particular importance to survey researchers because we do much of our interviewing via phone. Until recently, that interviewing was done via landline only, using a complex system based on a database of every landline telephone exchange in America, to which digits are appended randomly.

Study after study has shown that in general, the effect of excluding from the interview process those who only have cell phones has not seemed to affect the overall marginal results of political studies.

Still, Gallup has been studying and investigating the implications of cell phone only households for well over a year now. And, as of Jan. 1, 2008, Gallup has made the decision to include cell phone interviewing as part of the sample used for its general population studies.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/gallup/