Report: Australian Cell Phones Outnumber People

According to government statistics released this week, Australia has more cell phones than people.

That’s according to the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007, the Australian Communications and Media Authority reported. There were 21.26 million phones in operation, which is a 7.6% increase on the previous year. Meanwhile, Australia’s population at Sept. 30, 2007, was 21.1 million, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

The government also reported that the number of pay phones dropped to 49,862, a fall of more than 8,000 from the previous year. Clearly we’re living in a more wireless world by the day, though it’s not clear who is yakking on the extra cell phones “in operation.”

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