14 DAY TRIAL // Surprisingly enough, the number of countries where the number of mobile phones surpasses that of people living on that territory is quite large. The UK is at the top of cellular consumption, showing that there is one and a half handsets for each Briton. That must be why finding your better half is so important nowadays.
At this moment, there are 71 million handsets in the UK, sharing some 70 million SIM cards. Considering the fact that there are 45 million adults in the country at this time, some simple math shows that the average is of 1.6 handsets per adult. First Direct has discovered this as a result of a recent study that the company has made. Moreover, nine per cent of the Brits claim to have more than four different mobile numbers. That shows a considerable evolution for mobile telephony over the past years for the UK.
"But the days when we kept just one handset are fast fading, as many of us have different phones for different purposes. With one phone for work, one for friends and potentially a personal organizer or BlackBerry as well, mobilemania has swept the nation", said Alison Leonard, head of e-commerce.
There is a simple reason for this incredible evolution that handsets have shown over the past period. "The mobile phone has become the remote control for our lives. We use our mobiles to keep in touch with friends, family and workmates", considers Alison Leonard. Because of this, it proves to be only natural for each person to have more than one handset for better organizing his/her activities.
UK has managed to go over the number of one mobile phone per Briton back in 2005 and this number has continued to rise ever since. This evolution is also reflected in huge profits that handset producers get from covering the users' need of using more than one mobile phone.