Australia has more mobile phones than people
Rodney 11 comments
Australia now has more mobile phones in active service than it has people, an impressive figure of 21.26 million (with a population a little over 20 million) - an 8% increase in the last 12 months. In the same time frame, fixed line services have dropped from 11.26 million to 10.92 million subscriptions.
When you consider that out of the population, at least a sizable percentage have to be elderly or very young, this means an awful lot of us must be carrying around two or three phones. I know I used to (one for work, one for me), although now I just use my own one for work as well, to save the hassle.
While, I would assume that mobile phone towers, which provide about a 30km radius of coverage, would have to be easier to install and maintain, than a huge spiderweb of copper cables, I have to wonder what this means for our telecommunications infrastructure? Is this just the way of the future or does the loss of future funding for fixed line services spell trouble for the many systems which rely on high quality copper-in-the-ground (think monitored alarms, faxes, DSL, EFTPOS etc)?
One one hand, we are all demanding faster internet connections, which require less noise on the line, yet on the other hand, many people (such as myself) are opting for no fixed phone service at all, by using NakedDSL. Will this clash of interests come back to bite us?
Rodney
Monday 28th April 2008 | 11:23 PM...in response to this comment by Gong. Thanks. Sorted.
Friendo
Tuesday 29th April 2008 | 05:43 AMThere is Kathleen and me. I just counted 7 cell phones in the house. Though one of them is for exclusive use for when I go up to the States. Roaming charges for a phone with a plan designed for a Baja user yields $700. phone bills...with ease.
I just like to have gadgets...I can use several (2, maximun 3) computers and as many monitors as I can find room for, but I seem to only be able to use one cell phone at a time,
F-
Jake
Tuesday 29th April 2008 | 06:26 AMI think "active phones" relates to "active sim cards" and would be more accurate thus. This is mainly because of the advent of the prepaid phone. People buy a cheap phone with no contract which is prepaid, then get hooked up with a plan and ditch the old sim card.
Having worked in telecomunications for several years (a few years ago) that was pretty standard practice as it allows you to get a fairly good phone, pretty cheaply, then get hooked up on a good plan. Phone companies make an incredible amount of money on prepaid mobile calls.
andrew
Wednesday 30th April 2008 | 07:47 PMdoesn't newzealand have more sheep than people!!
Rodney
Wednesday 30th April 2008 | 08:11 PM...in response to this comment by andrew. I think you're right, Andrew.
4:1 ratio, in favour of sheep, I believe.
charlie
Monday 10th November 2008 | 04:36 PMthe last paragraph first word has a typo
Kim OJ
Monday 10th November 2008 | 04:52 PMBut how many of the 20 million Australians can be categorized as active? Maybe the numbers are even greater in favor of the phones if we compare according to the same standard!
Rodney
Monday 10th November 2008 | 06:35 PMWell the parent article states that they're all active.
Also the previous comment by "me" has been removed, as it wasn't by me at all.
Gong
Monday 28th April 2008 | 10:53 PMthe title has a typo