---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <nk4i7m$1r7v$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2016 22:33:26 +0000 (UTC) From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Are telephone surveys statistically valid? In article <19bbd2d3-04f3-4046-a42b-1c083ad4e0fa@googlegroups.com>, HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote: >Fortunately, I do not get such calls on my cell phone. That's because they are illegal. >My question: These days, lots of people have abandoned >their residential landline. Given that, are landline >surveys still statistically valid since so many voters >no longer have a landline? Quality polling operations who are still doing probability sampling (the "gold standard" for polling) will include cell numbers in their samples. This is more expensive because they have to have a live operator on the line to handle the call. Other times, pollsters will use nonprobability samples (like Internet panels) but will run less frequent cross-validation polls to ensure that their Internet surveys actually give comparable results. >Historically, telephone polls have been wrong before. The standard for all survey research is 95% confidence, meaning that the true value is likely to be within the stated margin of sampling error 19 times out of 20, which means that it can be wrong one time in twenty. -GAWollman --

Garrett A. Wollman wollman@bimajority.org Opinions not shared by my employers.

What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft repeated, than the story of a large research program that impaled itself upon a false central assumption accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993

------------------------------ Message-ID: <e38ba1cd-1ad5-475d-ae97-e89edb22a28a@googlegroups.com> Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2016 13:07:04 -0700 (PDT) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> (HAncock4) Subject: Comcast accused of union-busting tactics A report in the Philadelphia Inquirer had accusations that Comcast employed union-busting tactics. While Comcast has 250 union employees in the Philadelphia area, it also relies on non-union sub-contractors to deal with customers. One contractor said Comcast is definitely non-union. Several former contractors have filed a federal lawsuit against Comcast claiming deceptive contracting practices. full article at: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20160606_Suits_say_Comcast_plays_hardball_with_contractors.html ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Tue, 21 Jun 2016