64.9
NOTE: Adults are aged 18 and over; children are under age 18.
Data Source: NCHS, National Health Interview Survey.
THE BASICS OF 911
Over the past decade, the percentage
of 911 calls made via wireless devices
has increased compared to those
made on landline phones. Today,
about 80 percent of calls to 911
come from cellphone users, and
about 80 percent of all cellphone
use takes place inside of buildings.
This reliance on smartphones
has led to people increasingly
cutting the cord in favor of wired
communications and relying
on their cellphones as their main
device for communications.
The Centers for Disease Control’s
preliminary results from its January–
June 2018 National Health Interview
Survey (NHIS) found that the number
of American homes with only
wireless phones continues to grow
(Figure 1). “More than one-half of
American homes (54.9 percent) had
only wireless telephones during the
Percent
70
Jan–Jun
2003
Jul–Dec
2007
60
50
40
30
55.2
Adults with
wireless service only
Children with
wireless service only
20
10
0
Jul–Dec
2004
Jan–Jun
2006
Jan–Jun
2009
Jul–Dec
2010
Jan–Jun
2012
Jul–Dec
2013
Jan–Jun
2015
Jul–Dec
2016
Jan–Jun
2018
FIGURE 1: Summary graph of percentages of adults and children living in households
with only wireless telephone service: United States, 2003–2018.
NEW RULES FOR 911
Recognizing that Americans
are communicating today in new
ways, the federal government
in 2014 adopted rules so people
can text 911, along with making
voice calls. “Texting during an
emergency could be helpful if
you are deaf, hard of hearing,
or have a speech disability,
or if a voice call to 911 might
otherwise be dangerous or
impossible,” the Federal
Communications Commission
(FCC) noted. The commission
still encourages people to call
911 as a first option since the
text-to-911 initiative has not
been adopted by all 911 call
centers, but wireless operators
have the structure in place
to allow text-to-911 if Public
Safety Answering Points
(PSAPs) request it.
The FCC is also working
on new rules to increase the
accuracy of 911 calls inside
a building. Earlier this year, the
FCC proposed a fourth further
notice of proposed rulemaking
that would provide even more
accuracy to identify a caller’s
location, including the vertical
location for calls made from
inside high-rise buildings.
first half of 2018—an increase of
2.4 percentage points since the first
half of 2017,” the CDC report stated.
Younger demographics skew even
more toward wireless-only households.
More than 77 percent of
adults aged 25-34 live in wireless-
only homes, the survey noted. Adults
in the 18-to-24-year-old age group
and the 35-to-44-year-old age group
also had high percentages of
wireless-only households at about
65 percent each. About half of
people aged 45-64 live in wirelessonly
homes, and 29 percent of adults
over 65 years old live in wirelessonly
homes.
Renters are also strong wireless-
only households, with 77 percent
of renters not having landline
phones. Overall, only about
5 percent of households said they
were landline-only homes, according
to the semiannual survey.
July/August 2019 I 49