Cell Phone Sampling

The rise of personal cell phone ownership in many industrialized countries and, more important, the increase in the number of people who can be contacted only via cell phone poses some challenges to traditional telephone surveys. Some of the sampling techniques used for selecting traditional landline (wired) telephone samples still apply when selecting cell phone samples. There are, however, specific characteristics of the cell phone that impact frame construction and sample selection that should be incorporated into designs to maximize yield from cell phone samples. The sampling issues will vary by country as a function of differing cell phone penetration rates, numbering taxonomies, and local market conditions, including technology and plan attributes. Designs for cell phone sampling and weighting, along with a general consensus for their use in practice, are currently continuing to emerge within the survey research community. Based on a query of cell phone systems worldwide, it does appear that the cell phone situation in the United States has a tendency for more complexities. The solutions for other countries may be much simpler versions of these designs.