The chart below shows the total number of minutes (in billions) of
telephone calls in the UK,divided into three categories, from 1995-2002.
The bar chart compares the amount of time spent by people in the UK
on three different types of phone call between 1995 and 2002.
It is clear that calls made via local, fixed lines were the most popular type,
in terms of overall usage, throughout the period shown.
The lowest figures on the chart are for mobile calls,
but this category also saw the most dramatic increase in user minutes.
In 1995, people in the UK used fixed lines for a total of just
over 70 billion minutes for local calls, and about half of that amount of time
fornational or international calls.
By contrast,mobile phoneswere only used for around 4 billion minutes.
Over the following four years, the figures for all three types of phone
call increased steadily.
By 1999, the amount of time spent on local calls using landlines had
reached a peak at 90 billion minutes.
Subsequently, the figure for this categoryfell,
but the rise in the other two types of phone call continued.
In 2002, the number of minutes of national/ international landline
calls passed 60 billion,
while the figure for mobiles rose to around 45 billionminutes.(197 words,band 9)