More Belgians going mobile (phoning)

25 July 2007

BRUSSELS – In 2006 Belgians were on the phone for a total 24.86 billion minutes, a rise of 6,5% compared to the previous year. This emerged from the annual report of the Advisory Board for Telecommunications, published in newspapers De Standaard, Het Volk and Het Nieuwsblad.

The use of mobile phones in particular is on the rise: In 2006 Belgians made 21.4% more mobile telephone calls than in 2005; almost 11.4 billion minutes in total. The reason for this increase is twofold. On the one hand there are more mobile telephone users, about 6.5% more active subscribers in 2006; a rise to 9.38 million active subscribers or 88.7% of the Belgian population and on the other hand the number of mobile calls rose, roughly 1,212 minutes per subscriber. In total, a growth of almost 14% in 2006.

Text-messaging also increased: in 2006 4.5 billion text messages were sent, a rise of 29.4%. This makes an average of 477 text messages per subscriber per annum. Lower prices have boosted mobile telephony, according to the report.

While the use of cell phones is on the rise, fixed telephony is declining. In 2006 fixed line calls amounted to 13.5 billion minutes, a fall of 4.4 % compared to the 2005 figures. With a decrease of 10.9%, international phone calls saw the largest decline.