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Only a few decades ago having a telephone at home was a symbol of wealth _ it was as expensive as owning a house here in the 1970s.
The arrival of mobile phones and their eventual accessibility pushed communication and wired telephones out of the home. In 1999 the number of mobile phone users began surpassing that of wired telephone subscribers. Continued to surging until last year, mobile phones basically make wired telephone users - starting to fall from 2008 - obsolete.
KT Business & Economy Research Center noted in a report that voice calls and wired telephones are rapidly being replaced by text messages and mobile phones, but added that the future of mobile phones aren’t that bright either.
Telephone ― impolite means of communication
The announcement of AT&T, the first to provide a telephone service for the first time, shutting down its analog public switched telephone network in early 2010, was a symbolic event. Analysts said that the era of the wired telephone is coming to an end. Kim Hyun-kyung, a researcher at the center who authored the report, says that the telephone is an impolite means of communication. It interferes with daily life and annoys most people. The telephone rings whenever it wants regardless of whether you are trying to put your baby to sleep, taking shower, or cooking. In the past, one usually answered all calls, but more people are screening calls. Park Hee-sun, a housewife in southern Seoul, for instance, checks the caller identification first whenever the telephone rings. She picks it up only when it’s from her family or a few friends.
Kim points out that these days people don’t want a phone ringing to interrupt their life. They want to be free from the numerous phone calls that they don’t want to answer, and this intrinsic limitation is making voice calls disappear along with wired telephones.
The launch of voice over Internet protocols (VoIPs), which are much cheaper than conventional telephone services, has been threatening them during the past few years and the rapid expansion of smartphones contributes to their lingering death. The number of smartphone users surpassed 10 million in the first half this year and over half of the population is expected to be using smartphones in 2012. “The smart revolution, or big bang, means more than just more smartphone users. It brought diverse changes in the value chain, including contents, network, platform and the handset,” Kim said.
Smartphones influenced the way how people communicate thanks to the mash-up of diverse functions. Mobile VoIPs, the social networking service coupled with VoIPs, or the convergence with finance, location based services, augmented reality, and social commerce are some of the services available with the handy gadget. “The smart network, smartphones as good as computers, and smarter consumers following accumulation of user experience are byproducts of smartphone expansion. They can’t endure the boredom of wired telephones anymore,” Kim said.
Mobile phones also to disappear
As voice calls are not a major means of communication anymore, there will be a “New Babel Tower” with no language barrier thanks to the translation applications on smartphones, according to the report.
Similarily the fall of wired phones doesn’t mean the victory of mobile phones. Kim estimates that mobile phones will also eventually disappear. There are already signs that mobile phones are losing attractiveness. “Users started minding phone calls, either wired or wireless. It is especially so among young people and teenagers who are more accustomed to text messages and Kakao Talk than voice calls,” Kim said. A survey in the United States showed that 43 percent of teen subscribers are buying mobile phones purely for text messaging.
“The substitution of voice calls by text messages will accelerate thanks to the expansion of smartphones where fun and cheaper applications are available,” Kim said.
The network operators, meanwhile, are facing the dual burden of less voice calls and having to invest in new networks. “Decreasing voice calls will be the biggest threat to telcos as they depend on voice calls for over 60 percent of their sales,” Kim said.
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