Latest cell phone study: New Yorkers talk less than almost everyone else

By on Aug 26, 2010 at 10:30 PM
mobile August 26, 2010

According to recent survey, New Yorkers literally don’t have time to talk on their cell phones. In terms of rank, New York is #15 in the nation for total number of calls, yet almost dead last in terms of actual call durations. If you’re from New York, you’re probably shaking your head in agreement as we’re most likely to take a call while doing seven hundred other things; say what we have to say, and jump off. What state would you guess holds the title for most prolific cellphone users? That would be Georgia. Because everyone is friendly in Georgia. Some more quick data from the study: teens send almost 3,000 text messages a month, and women talk on the phone 22% more than men. Though I doubt anyone is surprised by those last figures…

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  • sirpaul

    Very interesting. I woulda have never guessed. Is the study based on call duration per call, or overall talk time? Someone might make 100 two minute calls, while someone else make 5 twenty minute calls. Call time is the same in both cases

    • NumbersGuy

      Um, 100 x 2 = 5 x 20? Must be that New York minute I’ve heard about.

    • Asdf

      Someone really forgot what they learned in basic mathematics class…

  • Eric

    Maybe a lot of New York citizens have AT&T and an iPhone and they can’t get service! ;)

    • cheech

      yup thats it, lol

    • jawman

      Damn, you beat me to it!
      +++++

  • Josta

    Well thats because most people in New York have AT&T, and their calls drop 99% of the time

    • http://headsetchatter.com HeadsetChatter

      I’d be curious to see statistics. I can’t believe anybody who’s not using an iPhone would be on AT&T in NYC. They suck. They have always sucked. I know — I’ve been a mobile AT&T user in NYC for the majority of the last 13 years. Verizon is the only company that provides decent service in the city.

      • Jason LI

        I would have agreed last year but it has improved quite a bit. Now when my buddy on Verizon calls me he keeps dropping his calls but that’s because he’s on the North Shore most probably. I have an iPhone 4. LOVE IT!!! No issues!! Watching a movie on the new Netflix App. Cool cool cool!

  • http://headsetchatter.com HeadsetChatter

    Yeah I guess that makes sense. I have to have 450 minutes on my plan, and I only use 50 on average. New York has also traditionally had very bad cell coverage, with lots of buildings blocking the signal, and people spend a lot of time underground. It may have conditioned people to not expect to be able to use their phones all the time and the goal is to say what you need to say before the call drops. It’s not quite that bad anymore, but now that I think about it, I think that’s subconsciously something that affects my cell phone usage.

    • NumbersGuy

      Tall buildings…Midtown traffic noise …Subways …Fugettaboutit! These and other factors always kept my calls short in Manhattan.

  • jawman

    AT&T is to blame here. Move on everyone…

  • Roger A

    Which explains why my friend in NYC never talks to me anymore – and if he calls I ALWAYS ANSWER because it MUST be urgent if he has to call me.

    Ironically here, I thought I was bad with my 9,000-10,000 Texts Per Month in 2004 when I had Unlimited Texts on T-Mobile and no one else had it (it wasnt even offered to TMobile customers without a Nokia). So kinda off the wall to think that my 2,000-2,500 current messages to friends with unlimited still isnt breaking the 3,000 mark that other people are. WOW! I wonder what my sister hits!

  • Swagger

    Go Yankees!!!

    I miss my Hartford Whalers.

  • C Los

    I think a lot of it has to deal with the fact that most people work later hours & thus can make more personal calls at work. Lastly after spending a majority of the day on the phone at work the last you want to do is talk on the phone after work. Often times it doesn’t take too much to confirm one still needs milk or something to complement the evening happenings.

    Shoot relationships are made or broken via text.

    Lastly, I would beg to differ that Blackberry is more widely used in New York then At&t’s iPhone but good joke nonetheless.

  • naughty_nicky

    Yet another stupid study. What’s next? Females are the largest audience amongst Oprah viewers? Males in the age range of 18-29 visit tech blogs the most?

  • cmboud

    Well the real reason i believe is because people call a lot in their car on their way to work and after work and most people in NY use the subway to go to work and to go out! no reception there so less phone use. Simple math.

  • Nick

    Teens were the biggest texters, sending or receiving an average of 2,779 messages per month, more than twice the number sent by those aged 18 to 24.

    That can’t be right…my normal bill shows me using 4,500+ on text messages, 1,000+ on minutes, and upwards of 3gb of data…please tell me how they picked the 60,000 people to get their bills…

  • http://firstain.com/ karan israni

    Maybe its because the iPhone dies up at crucial times :(

    Its nice to see Apple themselves approve of this (see below) to allow us to make our iPhone 4x times faster!

    http://firstain.com/index.php/2010/08/27/how-to-make-your-iphone-4x-times-faster/

    Now New York will talk!

  • Blake Miller

    -No commuting via car
    -Bad Service
    -Agreed personal calls are not really frowned upon w/ 10-12hr days
    -Street noise – it’s impossible to have a serious cell phone conversation walking on the street

    *look into bluetooth sales… I do not have data to support, but the majority of my friends in the burbs have a bluetooth headset, city not so much.

    • penetrode

      blake? Evan’s younger brother?

  • Team FRAGMENTATION

    Did NYC really need another study to pronounce their self importance. Believe it or not New Yorkers there is life outside your little island of filth.

    • Jason LI

      Must be some idiot from the south.

  • phoghat

    Don’t know where or how they got their information, but I live in NY and take public transport a lot. I can’t get away from people talking on their cells. Most of the use a Blue Tooth headset and it looks like a bunch of psychopaths talking to themselves

  • T Man

    You know, I was inclined to say that these talk figures for NYC are bunk, but I think they are right. Walking around NYC, you find many people using a smartphone doing other things like e-mail and texting. I even saw a tool using an iPad while walking.

  • penetrode

    I live in NYC. I logged in around 60 minutes this past month with 17 minutes this month so far.

    Voice interaction is on the decline everywhere. I’m trying to imagine what the world will be like when newborns today grow into adults…

  • Bob

    I totally believe Georgia is #1, I can’t walk through the grocery store without pushing people out of the way because they are so braindead from talking on their phone all day.

  • http://www.tekunoloji.com Ballmer Schmidt Jobs

    Really? Because all the people I know in NYC yap like a mofo. and I live here.

  • mikestorm

    This is not surprising at all actually. From what I can tell, New Yorkers can never seen to figure out of someone is talking to them.

  • WilliamC

    Now you makin me check my Sprint account call logs. I know I yap to at least one person for about an hour everyday. I guess mobile to mobile doesn’t count…LOL

  • blah

    It’s not that NY’ers talk less, we just talk faster and get right to the point :)

    • Hip Grandpa

      Exactly– what the South discusses in 10, we discuss in a NY minute.

  • http://www.phone-detective-review.com/ Phone Detective

    I’m from NEW YAK!! New Yorkers are crazy, I would know because I used to be one of them.

    I agree that people in New York talk so freakin fast that its probably part of the reason they talk less.

    Very interesting article, thanks for the great post.

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