【英语科技】没有手机的生活

Waiting in the bowels of New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal recently, Nancy Kadlick was losing faith. She was supposed to meet her friend Cynthia Santoro, but as the minutes ticked by, she wondered if she was in the wrong spot.

It turned out she was. 'I was upstairs, and you weren't there!' Ms. Santoro exclaimed when they finally found each other.

The cellphone was supposed to put an end to moments like that. But the 54-year-old Ms. Kadlick, of Salem, Mass., is among the roughly 30 million American adults who don't own one. She used to pay $65 a month, but she ended her cellphone service a few years ago, trying to cut costs.

An article published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal about consumers spending less on dining out, clothes and entertainment but more on their phone bills drew an unexpected response from some readers: Who needs a cellphone, anyway?

For the nation's big phone companies, people like Ms. Kadlick are extreme examples of a growing challenge: How do you keep customers on high-cost contract plans as the weak economy puts pressure on household budgets?

'I got tired of paying the phone bill,' said 24-year-old Melissa Hildebrand, of Hayward, Calif. 'It's pretty liberating.'

Ms. Hildebrand works as a home health aide. The 85-year-old woman she cares for does have a cellphone. 'She yells at me, 'Why don't you have a cellphone?' ' Ms. Hildebrand said.

Getting rid of her phone has meant getting reacquainted with punctuality. When she meets friends, she names a precise meeting place and time, often in nearby San Francisco. She gives them 15 to 30 minutes to show up. If they don't, Ms. Hildebrand finds something else to do.

Overall, cellphone ownership among American adults is around 88%, according to Pew Research Center surveys. In the past two years, there were some increases in cellphone ownership among the poor and the elderly.

Subscribers don't appear to be dumping their plans in large numbers, and wireless carriers are betting that cellphone users will spend more and more for mobile Internet service in the years ahead. But, as devices like the iPhone and the pricey data plans that typically come with them continue to spread, some consumers are looking for ways to cut back.

Low-cost prepaid cellphone plans have proven increasingly popular.

In the second quarter, the number of cellphone subscribers on contract plans rose just 0.5% from the year before, to 217 million, according to UBS AG. The number of prepaid customers grew about 11% to 74 million.

Part of the reason is people like Jim Foster, of Arlington, Mass., who owns a small building-surveying company. His business suffered amid the crunch in commercial real estate. To cut back, Mr. Foster got rid of his family's AT&T plan and signed up with a prepaid provider called Page Plus Cellular, bringing his family's phone bills down to $83 a month from about $150.

Mr. Foster, 45, says he uses a smartphone, but the plan offers only 100 megabytes of wireless data a month─a pittance compared with most of the plans offered by national carriers. Mr. Foster says he gets by relying on Wi-Fi hot spots around Boston and only turning on his cellular data when he needs to check his email. It takes more work, but He says he isn't likely to go back to a costly contract plan.

On the low end of the income scale, people give up their phones─at least temporarily─when they are under financial stress. New Yorker Junior Miranda, 46, lives on an $800 monthly Social Security check and sporadic income from odd jobs cleaning stores in his Brooklyn neighborhood. Last year, he got a smartphone on a plan that cost $50 a month and enjoyed watching YouTube video clips and sending photos to his daughter.

But after his cable bill rose earlier this year, Mr. Miranda had to prioritize, so he stopped paying the phone bill.

One recent morning he was sitting on a bench in Brooklyn waiting for a cellphone store to open, hoping to sign up for a government program that subsidizes cellphones for low-income people.

Not everyone can give up their cellphone easily. Down the street, a 45-year-old woman named Carlene, who didn't want her last name to be used, said she was on a contract plan with T-Mobile USA. She said she would love to get on a cheaper pay-as-you-go plan with MetroPCS Communications Inc.

The problem: She can't afford the early termination fee, and she said she would likely have to wait more than a year to make the switch.

最近，考德利克(Nancy Kadlick)在纽约港务局长途巴士站(Port Authority Bus Terminal)里面等朋友，等着等着，她就有点沉不住气了。她要与朋友桑托罗(Cynthia Santoro)见面，但时间一分一秒地过去了，她开始怀疑自己走错地方了。

结果她是真的走错了。两人最终碰面时，桑托罗惊叫道，“我在楼上，可你不在！”

有了手机之后，这种情况本可以不再出现的。但家住马萨诸塞州塞勒姆(Salem)、54岁的考德利克没有手机，她曾每月支付65美元的手机费用，但几年前她不再使用手机服务了，因为她想省钱。美国成年人中像她这样不用手机的有3,000万人左右。

《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)前段时间刊登了一篇文章，文章称，当前消费者外出就餐、置装和娱乐花销减少，但手机花销增加，这篇文章意外引起部分读者的反应：究竟什么人需要手机呢？

美国大型电话公司正面临越来越大的挑战，像考德利克这样的人就是极端的例证，在疲软的经济为家庭预算带来压力之际，怎样才能避免高价合约用户的流失呢？

家住加州海沃德(Hayward)、24岁的希尔德布兰德(Melissa Hildebrand)说，“我对支付话费感到厌倦了，现在有种解脱的感觉。”

希尔德布兰德从事家庭健康助理工作。她护理的那位85岁的女士倒是有手机。希尔德布兰德说，“她会冲我喊，‘你为什么不用手机？’”

放弃手机意味着要重新习惯于严守时间。当她与朋友相约见面时，她会约定确切的会面地点和时间，通常是在附近的旧金山。她会多等15到30分钟。如果朋友没来的话，希尔德布兰德会找些别的事来做。

皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)调查显示，总体而言，美国成年人的手机拥有率在88%左右。在过去两年里，贫困人群和老年人的手机拥有率有一定上升。

目前似乎并未出现大批用户解约的情况，无线运营商也预计未来若干年手机用户将增加移动互联网服务支出。但随着iPhone等设备以及这些设备通常附带的昂贵数据计划的不断普及，一些消费者开始想办法削减支出。

低价预付费手机合约计划越来越受欢迎了。

瑞士银行(UBS AG)的数据显示，第二季度签订合约计划的手机用户仅较上年同期增加0.5%，达2.17亿。预付费用户增加了约11%，达到7,400万。

Bloomberg News福斯特放弃了他家的美国电话电报公司合约计划。之所以出现这种情况，部分原因在于像福斯特(Jim Foster)这样的用户。45岁的福斯特家住马萨诸塞州阿林顿(Arlington)，拥有一家小型建筑测绘公司。商用房地产市场的紧缩影响了他的生意。为了节省开支，福斯特放弃了他家的美国电话电报公司(AT&T)合约计划，与一家名为Page Plus Cellular的预付费运营商签了约，从而使他家的话费从每月150美元左右降到了83美元。

福斯特说他使用一台智能手机，但他加入的合约计划每月只提供100兆的无线数据──比大多数全国性运营商提供的合约计划都要少得多。福斯特说，他依靠散布波士顿全城的Wi-Fi热点凑合着用，而且只在需要查电子邮件时才启用蜂窝数据。这样比较费事，但他说自己不太可能重新加入昂贵的合约计划。

而低收入群体在面临财务压力时则会放弃手机，至少暂时如此。46岁的纽约人米兰达(Junior Miranda)依靠每月800美元的社保支票和偶尔在布鲁克林打扫商店的零星收入过活。去年他购买了一台智能手机，套餐费用为每月50美元，可以看YouTube视频，还可以给女儿发照片。

但今年早些时候他的手机费用增加了，米兰达不得不有所取舍，于是他不再交手机费了。

最近一天早晨，他坐在布鲁克林街道上的一条长凳上，等待一家手机店开门，希望能签约加入一项为低收入者提供手机话费补贴的政府计划。

但也不是所有人都能轻易放弃手机。还是在这条街上，45岁的卡莲(Carlene，她不希望我们称呼她的姓）说，她是与T-Mobile USA签约的。她说她很想与MetroPCS Communications Inc.签订比较便宜的“即用即付”(pay-as-you-go)合约计划。

问题是：她付不起提前解约费，她说她可能得等上一年多才能变更合约计划。