Junk text-message peddlers, rejoice!

It's good news for shouting, as more people now have more phones to do it on. There were 6.2 million mobile phone owners in Shanghai at the end of 2001, and in China 55 million people joined mobile phone networks in 2004. Peer pressure, "fashion", and keeping up with the Zhou's is still on the up and up, it seems.

The number of phones in use in the city has reached 22.81 million, including 13.69 million handsets — nearly four times the number five years ago, the Xinmin Evening News reported today, citing the administration. In 2000, every 100 Shanghai people had 54 phones, and there were 3.5 million handsets in use, according to the report. The figures show development in the past five years is the fastest in city’s 120-year telecommunications history.

Yes, for some reason, mobile phones didn't sell particularly well during the 1880s and 1890s.

Unofficial sources have stated that the most uttered expression on all of these phones is, "I'm at the cinema".

Siemens has more job vacancies on hand as they are one of a clutch of companies aiming to be the first in 3G technology here. Insiders state that they may be introducing some sort of new-fangled "volume-control" to these mobiles, which may now unfortunately mean that you won't have the option of listening in to the phone call of another fellow who is standing across the street from you. And they say technology improves our lives ...

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