3 November 2005
Conventional landline phone services will have been put out to pasture by a third of US and Europe customers by 2009, a report has claimed.
According to the BBC, Gartner, the market research group, has predicted that 70 per cent of calls around the world will be made using wireless technology by this time, with mobile costs plummeting and take-up of such services increasing in areas such as China and India.
As such, there will be around three billion mobile subscribers in the world by 2010, the report said.
Broadband telephony, using high speed net connections, is becoming increasingly popular too - again by dint of its cheapness in comparison with many landline services.
Telephone companies will probably have to adapt accordingly to stay alive, as the BBC quotes David Neil - research vice president at Gartner - as saying.
"They will have to have a very clear wireless strategy or they are going to be dead," he stated.
Mr Neil cited BT as one of the companies that is proving particularly successful in moving with the times in preparing materials for the digital home of the future.
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