Mobiles overtaking fixed-line calls - official

Mobile phone usage has already overtaken fixed-line phones in the UK and five other countries - and the pace is accelerating, says a new report

Published on Nov 6, 2009

Mobile phone usage will overtake standard fixed phone lines as the dominant means of communication in Europe next year, according to a new report.

The new report - by management consultants Analysys - says that in five European companies (including the UK) more "voice minutes" are already made on mobile networks than on fixed and broadband networks combined.

“In many markets it looks as if fixed voice is going to suffer not the slow and lingering decline many have predicted, but a rather rapid one,” says report co-author, Dr Alastair Brydon.

He says that by next year the majority of all European calls will be made by mobile and that in Finland - birthplace of Nokia - that figure rises to a stunning 90%.

The report shows that mobile phone companies can dramatically accelerate the shift from fixed-line to mobile by adopting more flexible pricing plans. Germany consumers, for example, have traditionally been reluctant to move from fixed-line calls to mobile phones.

At the end of 2005 only 17.5% of calls were made on mobiles but following the introduction of cheaper domestic tariffs by the mobile operators that percentage shot up to over 24% by the end of 2006.