Arbitron cuts its phone bill

No more will Arbitron have to install and pay for a conventional land line when a cell phone-only household joins a PPM panel. The company says it has found off-the-shelf technology that will do the trick. That doesn’t just save Arbitron having to pay for a phone line, but also makes people more willing to participate.

Using the off-the-shelf, cell-phone modem commonly used for security systems has increased the participation of cell-phone-only households in PPM markets, Arbitron reports. Beginning in April 2008, Arbitron started providing respondents in cell-phone-only households with standalone cellular modems, which allow PPMT equipment in cell-phone-only households to send ratings data back to Arbitron without the installation of a dedicated landline.

Before the adoption of the cellular modem technology, Arbitron would arrange for the installation of a conventional landline in cell-phone-only households just for the PPM equipment. The respondent would often have to take a day off from work to wait for the phone company installer. As a result, PPM equipment installation rates in cell-phone-only households were nearly 20 points lower than install rates in households with a landline.

Over the past seven months, the monthly installation rate for cell-only households has approached or exceeded installation rate for landline households. Since a large proportion of cell-phone-only households contain a respondent in the 18-34 group, Arbitron says the cellular modem technology has helped improve the representation of this group in the PPM sample. The technology is also helping the company in its program to increase the cell-phone-only sampling rate from 7.5% to 10%.

How to read: 91 percent of all cell-phone-only households that were recruited in October to take part in a PPM panel successfully installed the PPM equipment. 
* as of November 10

Source: Arbitron