” “The report on telecommunication, submitted by the EU Commission, sheds light on an area which reaps "nearly 290 billion euros" in profits. "The average price of a 3 minutes’ long-distance call from a landline reads the report dropped from about 41.8 cents of a euro in 2000 to today’s 25 cents". In the last year, "the prices of national mobile phone services have dropped by as much as 13.9%". In addition, "31 million mobile phone users have asserted the right, as sanctioned by the EU law, to retain their phone numbers when moving to a different service provider": among the member states, "Spain has the highest number of users who decided to assert that right". With 478.4 million mobile phones across Europe, "now penetration accounts for 103% of the population; on the increase, compared with 95% in 2005". Which means the EU population uses more than one mobile phone per capita. The highest concentration is in Luxembourg (171%), Italy (134%) and Lithuania (133%).” “
