Mobile mania reigns

ABOUT two billion people worldwide are now hooked on to a mobile phone, according to the United Nations, and the technology is taking over.

Personal digital technology was expanding at a revolutionary pace and could have a pervasive impact on people's lives, the UN's telecommunications agency said.

Internet and mobile communications were now the prime leisure time medium for under-55s, outstripping television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and cinema, according to the International Telecommunications Union.

The growth in the use of devices that link up to global digital networks is far outstripping any other communications medium in history, according to the ITU's Internet Report 2006: Digital.Life.

"We're in the midst of a digital revolution," one of the authors, Lara Srivastava, said from Geneva.

Mobile mania reigns | Herald Sun