LANSING Cell phones are rapidly replacing their land line counterparts as the main telephone in Michigan households, a new survey released Monday contends. The survey also shows seven of ten people in Michigan own a computer and have used it to access the Internet, a bare majority with dial-up modems.

The survey by Cyber-State.Org also shows heavier cell phone usage in metro Detroit than the rest of the state and that computer ownership continues to remain heavily influenced by race, presence of children in the home and educational level.

While the majority of Michigan residents have access to computers and are on-line to find
information, make purchases, and interact with government, there is still work to be done to help everyone reap the benefits of information technology, said Jeffrey Taylor, Chairman of the Cyberstate.Org Board and Executive Director of the Michigan Public Health Institute.

In this most recent survey, most respondents reported owning cellular phones (73 percent), an increase of 10 percent from the 2002 survey. Since 1998, the number of Michigan households without a cellular telephone has nearly dropped in halffrom 49 to 27 percenta rate of growth twice as fast as the growth of computers in the home.

Computer ownership and Internet usage has risen slightly in Michigan since 2002, when 70 percent of Michigan residents reported owning at least one computer. But the use of cells , while the share of Michigan residents stating that they have accessed the Internet at some point in their lives rose only 3 percentage points to 70 percent.

While the majority of Michigan residents have access to computers and are online to find
information, make purchases, and interact with government, there is still work to be done to help everyone reap the benefits of information technology, says Jeffrey Taylor, Chairman of the Cyberstate. org Board of Directors and Executive Director of the Michigan Public Health Institute. In this most recent survey, most respondents reported owning cellular phones (73 percent), an increase of 10 percent from the 2002 survey.

Since 1998, the number of Michigan households without a cellular telephone has nearly dropped in halffrom 49 to 27 percenta rate of growth twice as fast as the growth of computers in the home. As was the case in the 2001 and 2002 surveys, ownership of cell phones in higher in both the City of Detroit and Metro Detroit than in other regions of the state.

With the results of this latest survey, we have seen a growing concern among Michigan residents about privacy on the Internet, Taylor said. This includes the view of spam as a serious problem and an invasion of peoples privacy, as well as unease over public records – such as driving records, marriage records, and property tax records – being made available online.

These are some of the findings discovered by the 2004 Information Technology in Michigan survey, conducted by cyber-state.org (www.cyber-state.org). Cyber-state.org, a member of the Altarum nonprofit family, was established in 1998 by Michigans business, education, health care, government, and philanthropic communities. Cyber-state.orgs vision is to help Michigan become a world leader in developing and using information technology in ways that better the life of every citizen.

The telephone and Internet-based surveys were written and conducted by Public Sector Consultants Inc. of Lansing, Michigan (www.pscinc.com). Other major findings include:

The majority of respondents with Internet access at home continue to access the Internet via modem (54 percent); however, increasing shares report using DSL or cable modem connections. The overall increase in DSL and cable modem access between 2001 and 2004 is 25 percent.

The switch to cellular telephones as the main telephone over a landline is well underway in Michigan. Nearly one-quarter of respondents under age 25 (25 percent) and aged 25-34 (21 percent) report their cellular phone is their primary number, a rate at least twice as high as any other age group. Black respondents were three times as likely to report their cellular as their main phone.

The 2004 survey found more Michigan residents seeking government services and
information online. Approximately 3 out of 4 respondents said that they have accessed the
states website (www.michigan.gov); this is up from 40 percent in 2002.

Nearly two-thirds of all online Michiganders have made at least once purchase over the
Internet (60 percent), a nearly five-fold increase from the first survey in 1998 (11 percent).

The 2002 survey marked the first time that a majority of the Michigan publicregardless of
whether or not they had ever used the Internetwere very concerned that information they
gave to a computer-based service or website would not be kept confidential; Internet
respondents were not as concerned overall. This year, a majority of all respondentspublic
and Internetreport being very concerned.