More than 10% of medium and large organisations’ UK telecommunications expenditure will be on mobile communications by the early 1990s, according to a recent report. Mobile Communications, published by the Butler Cox Foundation, forecasts that pagers and cellular radio will account for the lion’s share of the expenditure. The report criticises large organisations for fragmenting mobile communications, recommending that companies should do more to integrate mobile communications into other departments, and formulate strategy for their mobile communications’ needs. The highest uptake of mobile services in Europe has been in the UK and Scandinavia, with annual growth rates for cellular of around 50%. The report attributes the popularity of mobile services in the UK to low costs, competition and aggressive marketing efforts from mobile communications providers. But Scandinavia, it is pointed out, shows a high uptake of mobile communications even without competition or cheap services – although the sparse populations and long distances between settlements rules out a high density of public pay telephones in much of Scandinavia, so that travellers who need to keep in touch have little alternative but to use a cellular car phone.
