Planet Earth: now home to four billion phone lines

Go on, pick your jaw up off the floor -- this isn't that staggering, now is it? Considering all those cellphones that have been sold here recently, and the plethora of folks who just refuse to ditch that landline, four billion total phone lines seems just about right, truth be told. According to the International Telecommunications Union, our planet is now home to about "1.27 billion fixed lines and 2.68 billion mobile accounts," but the total number of people represented by these data is much less clear. Notably, the study found that "61-percent of the world's mobile subscribers are in developing countries," and further added that China and India were greatly to thank for reaching the milestone. And just think, there were less than 1 billion lines combined across the globe just 11 years ago.

[Image courtesy of OwlRecruitment]

[Javi0084 @ Sep 5th 2007 6:00PM]

"and further added that China and India were greatly to thank for reaching the milestone."

And Nokia for offering cheap reliable cell phones.

[Kaemon @ Sep 5th 2007 6:18PM]

Hmm Wow, quite impressive there. Of course, I've never really been concerned about how many there are, just if they work, haha.

[Josh @ Sep 5th 2007 6:21PM]

I yearn for the day when I can look up without seeing a spiderweb of phone lines. I think that day might not be too far off.

Oh, and powerlines. Those scientists need to get on with that wireless energy transmission. What are we paying them for, anyway?

[Magallanes @ Sep 5th 2007 6:41PM]

Two words :TESLA COIL

;-)

[John Stracke @ Sep 5th 2007 8:54PM]

The amazing part is that cellphones outnumber landlines more than 2 to 1.

[AndrewNeo @ Sep 5th 2007 9:13PM]

It's simple really.

A family lives at home and have a home line. The adults both have their own cell phones, as well. That's two to one. If they have kids, then that's possibly even more. I know its a limited view and obviously isn't the real reason behind the numbers, but it certainly is a factor.

[Pep @ Sep 5th 2007 11:51PM]

Not amazing at all Mr. John Stracke. It's quite cheaper to put up an antenna than a wire to each house. Many underdeveloped countries have bypassed the wiring by now.

[John Stracke @ Sep 6th 2007 8:43AM]

"Many underdeveloped countries have bypassed the wiring by now." Yes, I know, but I didn't realize it was happening so quickly. I've certainly heard enough about poor countries that have leapfrogged the landline age; but most articles I've read are about places where there are one or two cellphones per village.

[Alexeon @ Sep 5th 2007 10:28PM]

One more step in making our world even more interconnected. ^_^

[Pep @ Sep 5th 2007 10:44PM]

No question. I own like 8 lines myself...

[Fruition @ Sep 5th 2007 10:58PM]

Hmmm well it's good that at least people still outnumber phones.

Otherwise, some idiot would have already said "Well, I for one welcome our new telephone overlords."

[jb @ Sep 6th 2007 5:00PM]

I can just imagine the guy who created the cell phone talking with the telcos ...
you can triple or even quaduple your annual earnings. you've already sold each home a phone line now you'll add 2-4 more lines per household & charge more for each because they are mobile. ignore the quality for now, they won't care. nevermind the pin drop sales pitch, they won't care.
there they sat already having exhausted all the features they could think of adding to the land line & they were looking forward to 4 times the profit.
had to have been a good day for someone!