By Yuki Noguchi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 13, 2005

Aaron Brooks has two jobs, and because of them he is almost never at his home in Southwest Washington.

"I had my house phone always forwarding to my cell phone, anyway," Brooks said. "I thought: Eliminate the middle man, which is my house phone."

So six months ago he canceled his phone service at home, and now relies exclusively on a prepaid cell phone he gets from Cingular Wireless. He estimates he saves himself $60 a month in local and long-distance charges.

Brooks is among roughly 6 percent of the population that has "cut the cord." Millions of college students, young professionals, and increasingly even families are forgoing their traditional phones at home and relying exclusively on their cellular phones. The phenomenon is expected to continue, as generations of people accustomed to using just a mobile phone grow up and go without separate phone service in their homes.

Brooks is deputy director of a nonprofit association in Alexandria during the day, and in the evenings runs his disc jockey and sound system business out of his home. Instead of checking messages for his business at home, he can get them on his cell phone wherever he is, he said.

He increased his plan from 500 daytime minutes a month to 1,000 minutes and uses just about every minute of his plan, he said.

Although he uses his cell phone more, Brooks says it gives him better control over his communications. For one, it has caller ID, which allows him to screen certain calls. Secondly, it has a "power off" button.

"If it's bothering me, I just turn it off," he said. Going all-cell also eliminated his long-distance bill; he takes care of those calls on his cell phone as well.

The cell-phone-only lifestyle has meant making other choices as well. Brooks, who has two children, gave his 12-year-old daughter a cell phone so she can reach him.

He said his son, who is 7, is still too young for one.