I often find myself telling people that they should get rid of their home telephones and receive an odd looking face as a response. Then I take a deep breath and remember that sadly, in the United States we are behind. I then find myself looking at them again and saying “Give it 5 years, and you will not have one I promise. In Europe they are really starting to not use them.” Reuters recently confirmed this. According to the news source 25% of all members of the European Union have gotten rid of their home telephones.

Added to that 1/5 of all calls are being done over the internet instead of using fast telephone services. The figure in the 10 ex-communist new member states was 39 percent as governments there found it cheaper to make the leap to mobile rather than upgrading old fixed-line networks.

And this is true. When I first arrived to the United States after being gone for almost 10 years I was shocked at the high costs of mobile phones here. Having to pay for someone to call you? Not in Europe. In fact most European mobile operators have services where you pay a very low monthly fee to have unlimited calls to all carriers within whichever country. If they are members of the same network it costs virtually nothing to call for how ever long you like.

Even long distance is cheaper. Calls from Sweden to the United States with a mobile phone are literally less than 6 cents per minute.

Finland, home of Nokia has a staggering 61% of all people not using fast telephone lines. I have seen this first hand while traveling to Helsinki. In 2003 while there visiting friends I asked “Why are there no home phones here?” and the most common response was usually along the lines of cost, and also logic. What is the point of having a fast telephone number if someone can call you specifically on your own private phone?

The country is by far the world’s leader in integration of the mobile phone. Years ago they started selling simple things as Coke from a vending machine and paying by yes, a text message.

Neighboring Sweden is also on the bandwagon. In large cities such as Stockholm, one can pay for the bus, or even the subway by sending a text message.

Everything is not utopia in Europe however, roaming charges are still there. Especially for an area like Europe where most travel between nations, it can be costly. On July 18th the European Union will decide about proposing caps on how high roaming changes for texts and phone calls while outside your home country.