Earlier this week, we reported that almost 70 per cent of all Canadians are using cell phones and that cell service is available to over 95 per cent of Canadians.

Well, Canada is a pretty wired country and most Canadians live in a narrow band along the U.S. border, making it relatively easy for service providers to get to them.

What’s more surprising, however, is another revelation this week, that more than 60 per cent of the world’s population is now using cell phones. That’s more than 4.1 billion cell service subscriptions worldwide.

The UN’s International Telecommunication Union, in it’s latest regular report on communications development in 154 countries worldwide, shows that the cheapest cell service is in Singapore, followed closely by the U.S. At the other end of the scale, Germany and Kuait are paying roughly twice as much per minute for their cell services.

The report also notes that growth of fixed line (also known as ‘land line’) phone services has pretty much plateaued in the past four years while cell growth has skyrocketed.