Statistics of Cell Phones

Cellular Phone Survey

Introduction

The following information is taken from a survey that I conducted in which I examined fifty college students, half of them male and half of them female. The topic that I studied was how much students use and rely on their cellular phones. I chose to analyze this topic mainly because cell phones are constantly growing in the number of users and has become a prime mode of communication for college students. I am hoping to find out how much cell phones are used according to their prices and monthly plans. I would also like to see how much cell phones are being used now in comparison to a home telephone. As cell phones become more and more popular, it is almost odd to see a college student without their trusty cell phone by their side.

Survey

The survey I created included ten questions related to cell phone usage. I asked questions such as, "Which phone method do you use" and "does this differ from the method used in the summer?" These two questions are the foundation of my survey. I also touched on how frequently students use their phones on a daily basis and how long an average conversation usually lasts for. This will tell me how much college students rely on their cell phones and their need for this mode of communication. I also asked which phone plans the students have and how much they pay monthly to have their cellular phone. I can compare these two variables to find the best plan based on how much someone uses their phone.

In conducting my research, I came across a few problems regarding the use of a cell phone in comparison to a home phone. Being an avid cell phone user myself, I know that I use a regular telephone when I am home for the summer due to the fact that there is no service in my area. Having no service defiantly puts a damper on a cell phone's appeal and I want to find out how much this affects a college students' choice in phone usage. Most college towns have nearly perfect cellular phone service but when it comes time to go home for the summer, this method of communication may not be as convenient.

Another problem that I came across was that many college students did not know how much their phone plans cost. These students told me that their parents paid their monthly bill and in turn, had no idea how much there conversations truly cost. I told these students to put an estimate of what they thing their parents spend monthly on their cellular phone.

Analysis

After collecting all of the completed surveys, I was able to take this information and analyze it using several different tables. Table #1 is a cross-tabulation of phone plans versus the cost of a phone plan. According to my data, Verizon was the most commonly used plan with over half of the students surveyed using this company. AT&T was the least popular phone company, acquiring only one cell phone user. The costs of the phone plans ranged from a mere $29.00 to a hurtful $150.00. The most common cost of a phone plan was $50.00, paid by twelve college students.

According to this table, AT&T is the cheapest cell phone plan at $29.00, yet only has one user. Cellular One also seems to be inexpensive, with four out of five users paying less than $55.00 per month. The most expensive plan goes through Verizon, ranging anywhere from $40.00 to $150.00. T-Mobile showed to be the most stable phone company price wise, with both users only paying $50.00 a month. Overall, this information shows that Verizon is able to charge higher monthly rates to their customers because their company is more popular and has a much greater number of users than most cellular phone companies.

Table #2 is another cross-tabulation showing the number of time per day a phone is used versus the number of minutes talked in an average conversation. The amount of times that students use their cell phones in one day ranged from one to fifty times. Using a cell phone five times a day was the most popular answer, with eight times being close behind. The least common usage of a phone daily by a college student is only one time. Obviously college students feel the need to converse more than once a day. The amount of minutes students talk for in a single conversation varied from one minute to thirty minutes. Talking for only one minutes was the least popular choice, while most college students prefer to talk ten to twenty minutes in a single call. This information explained to me how as the number of times per day that a phone is used increases, the number of minutes in each conversation increases. College students must have a lot of important things to say.

Table #3 is a histogram of the number of minutes talked daily by college students. This table shows that students most commonly talk on their phones between thirty minutes to an hour. Thirty students out of fifty fell into this range. No students fell into the ninety-minute range or the two-hour range. I was