Koreans addicted to mobile phones

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Koreans spend more time talking on cell phones than anyone else in developed countries.

According to the KT Management Research Laboratory, an average Korean spent 320 minutes per month talking on a mobile phone in the fourth quarter of 2008 -- the longest calling volume among countries where consumers have to pay for outgoing calls.

The laboratory, affiliated with the nation's top telecommunications company KT, said that Korea's cheap mobile call rates and their tendency to spend time outdoors make the nation post one of the highest calling volume per person in the world.

Koreans used mobile phones three times longer than Germans, who spent 102 minutes per month on the phone, the think tank said, citing data from Merrill Lynch.

Koreans also reported 2.3 times more call volume than Japanese, who spent 139 minutes per month talking on the phone.

French were the second most users of mobile phones, spending 246 minutes per month for phone conservations.

In Finland -- the home of Nokia, the world's top maker of mobile phones -- consumers spent 244 minutes per month talking on cell phones on average. Australians used their mobile phones for 218 minutes per month, followed by British with 192 minutes.

"Koreans spend long hours outside home and even at home they often use mobile phones instead of landlines. This has led Korea to post the highest monthly mobile phone usage among major countries," an official of KT Management Research Laboratory said.

Korea's mobile calling rates were cheaper than other countries; Korea's calling rate was $0.08 per minute, compared with Australia's $0.11, England's and Finland's $0.12, France's $0.14, Germany's $0.16 and Japan's $0.26.

Korea, whose mobile penetration reaches nearly 100 percent, is home to Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, the world's No.2 and No.3 maker of handsets, respectively.

In countries where consumers are charged for both incoming and outgoing calls, the monthly average mobile phone usage was high - 829 minutes in the United States, 447 minutes in Hong Kong, 444 minutes in Canada and 377 minutes in Singapore.

But given that the figure includes both incoming and outgoing calls, it should be divided into two to calculate mobile phone usage per person. Therefore, nations other than North America posted lower mobile phone usage than Korea.

Source

Comments

[invisibelle.livejournal.com]

I thought that picture was a toddler at first