Cellular Phones: Mixed Blessing : Convenience, Intrusion, Cost Can Cause Love-Hate Relationships
What do you do when you’re floating in the middle of a Hawaiian lagoon and all of a sudden the urge strikes to call the office in Los Angeles?
It’s no problem if you are radio industry executive Norman J. Pattiz. Pattiz, who was loath to abandon his comfortable inflatable raft during a recent Hawaiian vacation, just reached for his $1,700 portable phone and-- voila-- L.A. was on the line.
“The buzz used to be being seen on the beach reading scripts,” said Pattiz, president of Westwood One Inc. “Now, it’s being seen on the beach talking to your office in L.A.”
Nearly five years since cellular telephone service arrived in Los Angeles, portable phones and car phones have altered the life styles and work habits of many devoted owners, particularly people with high-powered jobs in business. Executives commonly keep tabs on the office while cruising on the freeways, and others lug phones to restaurants to avoid missing key calls.
Over time, the fascination with cellular phones has given way to a measure of disillusionment. Many complain about getting monthly bills of as much as $1,000, being cut off in the middle of conversations and losing out on the sense of seclusion they once had.
“Some of your quality time and time for creative thinking is when you are alone in your car,” said investment banker and attorney Richard J. Riordan, who makes and receives about 30 calls a day while driving in his Mercedes-Benz 450 SL. “I think I miss some of that. Fortunately, Pac Bell is not operative in some areas.”
Carries It Everywhere
Still, sales of cellular phones in Southern California are booming. Particularly hot are portables, such as Pattiz’s, that can be carried in a briefcase. Cellular car phones remain more common, though. The Los Angeles area, whose sprawl and traffic jams force residents to spend considerable amounts of time on the road, is the nation’s largest market for these devices and has 200,000 cellular phone users overall.
Car-bound executives claim their cellular phones have let them use what was once wasted time in traffic. Other cellular phone owners like the peace of mind of being able to reach and be reached from almost anywhere at anytime.
“It’s more like a pacifier,” said Jim Muntz, who keeps in touch with his Van Nuys electronics store with a portable phone that accompanies him on horseback rides and motorcycle trips. “I call in and they don’t know if I’m sitting up to my ears in traffic or if I’m riding up in the hills.”
So, what are all those people on cellular phones talking about? Many people are talking to secretaries about the phone calls they missed at the office, as well as returning those calls. On other occasions, callers are phoning ahead to let people know that they will be late for an appointment.
“The patients appreciate it,” said Jack McCleary, a dermatologist who many times found himself dashing from meetings in Los Angeles to his practice in Sherman Oaks. “I’m absolutely lost when I’m in a car without one, “ said McCleary, who is taking the next step in portability and buying a phone he can carry in a briefcase.
Car phone owners--including Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahoney--sometimes report traffic accidents to radio stations. Some call home to find out what their spouse wants picked up at the grocery store.
But many calls made on cellular phones are useless for the caller and receiver, says Jeffrey Schepps, who owns a graphic design and advertising agency in Torrance and has driven around with a phone for 2 1/2 years.
Some Calls Unnecessary
Schepps has cut his monthly phone bills from $600 to about $150 by not making what he refers to as “boredom calls.”
“You’re on the freeway and call the office just to say, ‘I’m on the way to the office and I want to find out how things are,’ ” he said. Or, “maybe you just made a big sale and wanted to tell somebody about it. It’s all a waste of time.”
Yet, Schepps and other car phone users are not about to abandon their electronic traveling companions. “It’s freed up a tremendous amount of my time,” said Schepps. “I no longer have to sit in my office waiting for a phone call. I simply call up (the caller’s) secretary and tell them to call me on my car phone.”
Attorney James E. Blancarte last year billed his clients for at least 150 hours’ worth of work he completed on his car phone. “The minute I start the car in the morning I call my secretary,” said Blancarte, who drives around with a sheet of phone calls to return. “It turns my car into an office--a productive office.”
Architects and partners Michael Bobrow and Julia Thomas use their car phones to keep in touch with their office and each other while visiting work sites from Palmdale to San Diego. “We’ve used them incessantly,” said Thomas, calling from her Porsche as she and her husband headed down the Golden State Freeway to Los Angeles from Palmdale.
But using the phone and driving still make Thomas, and many other car phone owners, a bit nervous. “I only dial at intersections,” she said, “otherwise I’d be a menace on the roads.”
The phones have come to the rescue of many a roving real estate agent. “Last year, I had a listing for well over $1 million and an agent called me on my car phone and wanted to know how to show the property that afternoon,” said Ken McNeill, a Rancho Palos Verdes real estate agent who installed a phone in his Mercedes 300 SD two years ago. “She subsequently sold the property to these people within a week. She may have shown them something else. Timing is everything in real estate.”
Like Burning Money
To keep expenses down, many car phone owners limit the time they spend talking. Since they are charged for incoming as well as outgoing calls, many phone users give their numbers to only a handful of people.
“I’m very, very conservative in using the phone,” said Alex Suh, a Pasadena-based business consultant whose monthly bills average less than $50. “I only give the number to clients who absolutely have to get ahold of me. The phone calls are very expensive. It’s like burning money.”
Many owners of cellular phones are also painfully aware of lost connections, particularly on the Westside and in downtown Los Angeles, where the number of users overloads the cellular phone system.
“You have to learn the system,” said Alycia Enciso, a Westside interior designer whose BMW has been equipped with a phone for the past year. “If you’re downtown, you might as well not call. I was in front of the Pac Bell building and I couldn’t get through.”
Investment banker Fredric M. Roberts recalls one frustrating call when he was disconnected nearly a dozen times. “There was a roomful of people (listening on a speaker phone) and they needed an answer right away. Maybe I would have been better off with a pay phone and a beeper.”
Car phone owners also have become accustomed to stares from passers-by.
“You have to concentrate on your driving and you can’t be looking at who is looking at you,” said Enciso. One time, however, a man in the car next to her went beyond looking and asked for Enciso’s car phone number. She drove away.
Drivers with speaker phones often appear to be talking to themselves. “You’re arms are waving and you suddenly realize that somebody is watching,” said Blancarte, whose car is equipped with a speaker phone. “The driver next to you is feeling very sad about your mental state.”
Cellular phone owners say the vast majority of their calls are related to business, and social chit-chat is kept to a minimum. But the phones come in handy for personal use, too.
On his way home, restaurateur Ron Salisbury, who owns El Cholo and the Sonora Cafe, often calls his wife to see if she needs anything from the grocery store. “It is easier than getting home and having to get back in the car and go somewhere else,” he said.
Schepps and his wife, who often questioned the necessity of his car phone, were in their Cadillac when the car had engine problems 15 miles outside of Palm Springs. He pulled the car to the side of the road and telephoned for a tow truck.
“She dropped the issue of the phone’s usefulness,” Schepps said of his wife. “She then understood that the thing is very useful.”
