Addressing the Cell Phone-Only Problem: Cell Phone Sampling Versus Address Based Sampling

Developing cost effective methods for reaching households which no longer have a landline but do have access to a cell phone, so called cell phone only households, is a critical item on the agenda of most data collection organizations. To date, two methodologies have emerged as potential means for addressing this issue. The first involves sampling telephone numbers from known cell phone exchanges and calling these numbers or combining these with a sample of landline numbers in a dual frame design. An alternative approach involves sampling of addresses rather than telephone numbers. Address based sampling (ABS) is a new technique built upon the use of large scale address databases. These addresses can be reverse-matched to commercially available databases to identify a relatively large proportion of telephone numbers, facilitating the use of mixed-mode approaches. Here we delineate and compare the advantages and limitations of these two approaches, including discussion of sampling and weighting approaches, operational considerations, timeliness, and cost.