The BBC has an article in which it claims  that over one billion new cell phones have now connected during the past 18 months. The article goes on to state that, worldwide, there are now over 5 billion cell phones in use, and not surprising, another 5 billion cells sitting in drawers somewhere or in landfills. In addition, cell phones now outnumber computers by a ratio of 3 to 1.

The article goes on to state that:

In western Europe, mobile phone penetration has reached 130%, which Mr Wood attributed in part to mobile phone operators including in their statistics connections that have been dormant for many months.

“But often people have more than one phone, a home phone and a work phone,” he said.

“The growth of connected devices will also drive this phenomenon, a laptop with a USB dongle, the Apple iPad, and so on.

“In the future, that market is likely to explode.”

Ian Fogg, mobile phone analyst at Forrester Research said: “An increasing number of phone users in emerging markets such as eastern Europe will use more than one SIM card in the same phone, in order to get the best deals.”

“Some mobile companies are now launching mobile phones with more than one SIM slot to take advantage of this phenomenon,” he said.

Mr Wood added: “As the eastern bloc crumbled, mobile phone networks were deployed, and people skipped fixed line telephones altogether, in favour of mobiles.

I haven’t used a traditional landline for well over two years. I had previously been using Vonage taking advantage of the low rates and also the broadband connection I had, to make local and long distant calls. Last month I dumped Vonage and went strictly cell phone only for both my wife and myself, taking advantage of the $30 a month plan from Straight Talk. Thus far neither of us miss not having a wired phone inside of our home.

So my question is this. Do you still have a landline phone? If so, why?

Comments welcome.

Source – BBC