The number of mobile phones grew by nearly 40 percent last year worldwide and is poised to exceed one billion - soon overtaking the number of fixed lines, the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said today.
There were 1.045 billion fixed lines at the end of 2001, against nearly one billion mobile phones, according to ITU spokesman Gary Fowlie.
"Given that the growth rate for mobile phones was 38 per cent last year, it won't take long. We may have already passed it," he said.
In a statement, the United Nations specialised agency said mobile phone markets were becoming saturated in Western Europe, while scope for growth was highest in developing countries led by China and India.
But billing schemes under which both the person receiving and the person making a call pay have proved a "strong deterrent" to mobile phone use in some countries including the United States and Canada, according to the Geneva-based ITU.
The industry has already invested more than $100 billion just to acquire licenses for the third generation digital mobiles, but the 3G rollout has been slower than expected, as when the second generation came out about a decade ago, it said.