American smartphone users report more dropped calls and unwanted text messages than users of feature phones. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 35% of smartphone users report at least one dropped call a week, versus 29% of feature phone users. (The researchers did not ask participants which service provider they were using.)
29% of smartphone users reported spam or unwanted text messages, versus 20% of feature phone users. Mobile phone users can reduce the number of unwanted texts they receive by registering their mobile numbers in the National Do Not Call Registry. Marketers are not permitted to randomly text numbers in this registry.
Roughly a quarter of all mobile phone users said they received unwanted sales calls at least once a week (26% of smarpthone users and 23% of feature phone users.) It is illegal to use a random-digit dialer or a pre-recorded message to make unsolicited sales calls to mobile phones in the United States.
Almost a third of all mobile phone users surveyed said they never receive unwanted texts or phone calls, and 26% said they never experience dropped calls. The Pew Institute’s researchers spoke to 2,254 adults for the survey, and 1,351 of those conversations took place on landlines, versus just 903 on mobile phones.
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