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Wireless: Mobile customers used 2 trillion minutes

No wonder everyone seems to be on the phone all the time.

Wireless customers used more than 2 trillion minutes in 2007, up nearly 18 percent from 2006, the CTIA wireless industry association said at its annual show.

An industry survey found there were more than 255 million wireless users as of last December, a one-year increase of 22 million.

Text messaging also is hugely popular, with more than 48 billion messages reported in December - that breaks down to about 1.5 billion messages per day. The survey also found subscribers are sending more pictures and other multimedia messages.

Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment |

Comments

By jc

April 1, 2008 2:31 PM | Link to this

My daughter used 1.7 trillion of those 2 trillion……

By Beautiful

April 1, 2008 4:27 PM | Link to this

duh! no one has a home phone anymore.

By KM

April 1, 2008 4:33 PM | Link to this

And this too shall pass.

By One

April 1, 2008 4:40 PM | Link to this

Yep, it’ll be something else next that will make all of this calling/texting obsolete.

By David

April 1, 2008 4:51 PM | Link to this

I still live in dark ages and have a home phone. What I want to know is this: why are cell phone companies still allowed to charge by the minute?!

By Tracy

April 1, 2008 5:28 PM | Link to this

Cell phone companies still charge by the minute because we still pay them. Metro PCS, with their flat monthly rate was a good start, but the handsets were pricy since there were no discounts and the coverage spotty. Maybe as Verizon tries it it will work better, and in the next few years we’ll all be on flat rate programs.

Although I can remember the land lines had similar per call pricing structures for a very long time - even after they went to a flat monthly fee, many customers who were not frequent phone users preferred hte per call rates. I can see this also happening with cell phones. Who wants to pay $99 a month for a phone used every couple of days at the most?

By doorknob

April 1, 2008 7:00 PM | Link to this

cell phone are a fade! They didnt exist 30 years ago.

By jeed

April 1, 2008 7:19 PM | Link to this

So each user averaged ONLY about 21 minutes on the mobile phone per day? Not bad at all… well, unless you write it for sensationalism.

By Opinionated One

April 1, 2008 8:30 PM | Link to this

If the choice was the cell phone, or the wife, There was times I enjoyed having her. BY BY Babe

By mamaj

April 2, 2008 12:03 AM | Link to this

What I want to know is, why can’t I buy a new phone at the retail price, and not have to go into another two year idiotic contract? I’ve been getting a free new phone every two years if I signed another contract, but I don’t want their d*&% contracts anymore, I just want another phone, while I shop around for a cell company that’s not a loan shark!!!

By Coachlover

April 2, 2008 6:47 AM | Link to this

Take a chance and buy the phone from your carrier on eBay. You won’t have to extend your contract.

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