The chart illustrates how many people used five different means of communication worldwide between 1998 and 2008.
Overall, there was an increase in the number of users of all five communication services examined, with cellular phone service witnessing the most dramatic growth to become by far the most used from 2002 onwards.
The number of subscribers to landline service started at around 15 million, after which it experienced a gradual increase to 20 million in 2006, before ending at nearly 19 million. Similarly, not until the year 2002 did people use fixed broadband and mobile broadband, and the figures for these two services showed the slowest growth, ascending slightly to 4 million in 2008.
Despite ranking second at nearly 5 million in 1998, cellular phone service also recorded the most considerable change, which saw a significant jump to roughly 65 million to become the most subscribed service in the final year. Finally, similar changes, but to a lesser extent, were seen in the figure for internet service, which gradually grew from around 4 million in 1998 to exactly two-fifths million in 2006, followed by a final leveling off towards the end of the period.