According to a new Harris Interactive survey, 86 percent of wireless phone subscribers believe they rarely or never engage in discourteous cell-phone use. However, 50 percent believe Americans are generally discourteous when using cell phones.
More than half of those surveyed said they are uncomfortable leaving home without their wireless phones. Further, 97 percent said they have either used or seen someone else use a wireless phone while in a restaurant, 35 percent have seen someone using a wireless phone during a play and 25 percent have seen someone use a cell phone during a class.
In addition, although a majority of users believe features like a vibrating ringer, voicemail and text messaging promote courtesy, 45 percent do not use voicemail, 50 percent have never used a silent or vibrating ringer and 77 percent have not used text messaging.
The Harris Interactive survey was commissioned by AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which has dubbed July Wireless Etiquette Month and has launched a series of wireless etiquette ads to run on train cars in Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
