EU study says Cypriots love their mobile phones
CYPRIOTS talk more on their mobile phones than any of their European counterparts.
According to Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities and the General Directorate Health & Consumer Protection of the European Commission, the average duration of mobile calls per subscriber per day on the island was six minutes in 2004.
The second biggest chatterboxes are the Finns at 5.3 minutes, with the French third, talking for 4.2 minutes per day.
The Poles are the briefest, with the average call lasting a mere 1.2 minutes.
The number of mobile telephone subscriptions has increased almost fourteen times between 1996 and 2005 in the EU27, from seven subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in 1996 to 96 in 2005, meanng there was nearly one mobile phone subscription per inhabitant in the EU27.
In the same year, thirteen member states had more than 100 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Luxembourg (158), Lithuania (127), Italy (122), the Czech Republic (115) and Portugal (111) registered the highest ratios and Romania (62), Poland (76), France (77) and Bulgaria (80) the lowest.
In Cyprus, there were 11 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants back in 1996, with the figure having incresed to 104 two years ago.
In contrast, the number of fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants in the EU27 has only increased slightly in this period, from 43 lines per 100 inhabitants in 1996 to 48 in 2005.
The pattern in the member states varies: the number of fixed telephone lines has fallen in twelve countries, while it increased in fourteen and remained stable in one.
The Member States with the highest number of fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants in 2005 were Germany (67), Denmark (61), France and Sweden (both 58), and the lowest were Romania (20), Slovakia (22), Lithuania (23), the Czech Republic and Poland (both 31). Cyprus is near the top of the scale, with 54.
Nearly 20 per cent of households in the EU25 had a mobile phone but no fixed line in 2006, compared to 10 per cent in Cyprus.
In the EU25 in 2006, 18 per cent of households had mobile phone access, but no fixed telephone access. The proportion varied largely among the Member States: it was less than 10 per cent in Sweden, Malta (three per cent), the Netherlands (four per cent) and Luxembourg (eight per cent), and 40 per cent or more in Lithuania (48 per cent), Finland (47 per cent), the Czech Republic (42 per cent) and Latvia (40 per cent). In Cyprus, the figure is ten per cent.
Christina Loizou is a sociologist at the University of Nicosia and is also the Secretary of the Cyprus Sociological Association.
Commenting on the statistics, she said that Cyprus is a small country with a small population, “meaning people have a lot more acquaintances and make more phone calls than many others across Europe. Being a small country, Cypriots loe to show off and the mobile phone is seen by many as a status symbol. And of course, as we know, Cypriots love to gossip.”
She also said that many people on the island, especially the older generation, are not familiar with the internet as a means of communication, so will instead use their mobiles.
“Aditionally, Cypriots are over-protective of their children and the mobile phone is a good tool with which to control children wherever they are.”
The high cost of local line rental in conjunction with the low-cost of local mobile phone rates also contributes to the phenomenon.
