EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : As in Other Recent Disasters, Earthquake Provides a Quick Jolt to Sales of Cellular Phones

Minutes after Monday’s earthquake knocked out phone service in his Park La Brea district apartment, David Sargeant dashed to his car and retrieved his cellular phone. Almost immediately, it rang. It was his mother calling from her home in Hancock Park on her cellular phone.

“It was my lifeline,” said Sargeant, an account executive at public relations firm Hill & Knowlton in Los Angeles. “I had no phone, no cable, no other communication.”

Most Angelenos affected by the quake didn’t have a cellular lifeline to the world. But with Pacific Bell’s fiber-optic network damaged and phone service still on major overload Wednesday, several cellular phone retailers said business was booming.

“I hate to say that it’s good for business, but it has been, it has actually contributed,” said Pactel spokeswoman Melissa May. “There are businesses buying blocks of phones to set aside for emergencies and individuals citing safety and security as their No. 1 reason.”

Modesto Leon, director of the Soledad Enrichment Action Program in East Los Angeles, said he bought his cellular phone Tuesday morning as he scrambled to find a new location for the class he had planned to teach at a Pacoima church damaged in the earthquake.

“If I had come all the way back here and tried to call, it would have been too late,” Leon said. “I think I put 100 minutes on it just in the last two days.”

Sales of cellular phones have jumped during each of Los Angeles’ recent string of emergencies, including the 1992 riots and last fall’s fires. While the area’s cellular system was overloaded immediately following Monday’s temblor, cellular signals are less susceptible to physical damage than traditional phone service, which relies on copper wire or fiber cable.

But analysts say that although there may be a brief rush on cellular phones over the next several weeks, consumers will not buy them en masse until the prices come down.

The typical base rate for a cellular phone is 45 cents per minute. Pacific Bell offers unlimited local calling for $8.35 per month for normal phone service.

Other factors, such as massive damage to the region’s roadways, may detract from sales at some cellular phone outlets.

“We are on La Cienega Boulevard, and the way most people access our shop is the 10 Freeway,” said Shawn Javidzad, manager of American Way Cellular. “People call in and want to buy phones, but they can’t get to us!”

Times staff writer Denise Gellene contributed to this report.