DETROIT — Until a month ago, Russ Becker’s wireless phone had never done anything but make calls.

If he knew his wife was in a meeting and he needed to get her some information, he borrowed a cell phone from someone else to send her a text message.

“I was afraid of the technology. I didn’t want to be embarrassed that I didn’t know how to do the things that other people did intuitively,’’ Becker said. The 45-year-old sees plenty of new tech as manager of the Gander Mountain store in Novi, Mich. He just wasn’t ready to jump in.

But then he started reading more about what all the new phones could do; his wife, Pam, started leaning on him; his phone battery started dying in minutes because of heavy usage when he visited relatives, and he knew it was time.

Having spent nine years doing nothing but making calls, he switched to a new LG Voyager phone — and ended up buying and using every bell and whistle available. Becker is one of millions diving in to more advanced phone service nationwide. People like him are using data services every day, watching and listening to almost every type of entertainment available.

Becker has had his new touch-screen, multimedia phone for about a month. In that time, he’s gotten turn-by-turn directions, watched live TV, pulled up satellite weather reports, looked up phone numbers for customers online, sent a photo to his wife of the family dog curled up on the couch, browsed the Web, and listened to a Christmas song his wife liked using the nifty song ID feature that will identify most any tune by sound. (It turned out to be “Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord’’ from Boney M.).

“It’s a fulfillment of what my wife said for the last five years: that I was going to hate not having updated earlier,’’ he said. He pays about $35 more a month on his bill, but says it’s so pleasant watching live Comedy Central shows over his previously lonely lunch hour that he’d pay that for the television features alone.

Verizon, the company that provides Becker’s service, says the number of downloads of all kinds of new media — movie and TV clips, music, games, software and so on — jumped from 6 million in 2003 to 106 million this year.

The company offers more than 300 games (up from 10 in 2002). And the other carriers show the same trends. People are starting to think of their phones as tiny entertainment devices, not just as a way to reach out and touch someone.

“We’ve definitely seen very strong growth in data services,’’ said Sprint spokesman Mark

Elliott. In the second quarter of 2007, for example, the company earned 40 percent more from such services than they had just a year before.

“I think it’s the fact that people have their phone with them no matter where they go,’’ Elliott said. “It’s the one device that people won’t leave the house without. When you have 24-hour, 7-day access, it becomes very natural for a customer to reach out and use the device for new things.’’

Mark Layne, a 45-year-old director of public relations for Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, said he first started using data services on his phone a few years go. He started slowly, sharing pictures and videos.

Now he uses his titanium, lovingly waxed LG phone constantly, he said. (No joke, he says; he waxes it to keep it shiny.)

Layne is in a band and keeps rehearsal pieces on his phone, where he can listen to them using a wireless headset. He has all his music stored on the slim flip phone now, he said, and runs near his Dearborn home with it tucked into a pocket, with those same wireless headphones on.

He says the phone’s photos can be impressive.

“I took pictures of my kids at Halloween and sent them to all my friends,’’ he said. “They couldn’t believe it was from my phone. They’re blown away.’’

He’s also an addict of ESPN MVP, which he uses to track Detroit teams. It has news stories, a running news ticker and game videos. At a house party a week ago, he had some friends over to watch the Patriots game, and showed them Pistons updates on his phone.

“I ended up leaving the phone open and watched the Pistons score while the Patriots game was up,’’ he said.

His phone can also do turn-by-turn directions, but unlike Becker, he doesn’t use them.

“I’m an old-school guy. I’ll find it myself,’’ Layne said.

Linda Abbass, a 24-year-old children’s hospital nurse from Troy, Mich., has also been using data services on her phone for a few years, first with T-Mobile, then with Verizon. But her focus is on one thing: games.

“I got bored in class and downloaded some games,’’ she admits, and that started a downtime love affair with gaming on the small screen. When she was a pool nurse, there were often hours where she wasn’t needed, Abbass said. She quickly became an expert at solitaire, then “Zuma,’’ then “Diner Dash.’’

Now she doesn’t have nearly as much time to play, but she estimates that she still gets in an hour a week, accumulated a few minutes at a time. She’s even downloaded an ER game — though she’s been too busy nursing to play at nursing just yet.

She has a Nintendo DS handheld game console, but prefers the phone, she said.

“It’s just too big. It’s more convenient to have a phone,’’ Abbass said.