Inside U.K. Cell Phone Market Booms, Bringing Good With Bad By STEVE HILL	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
携帯電話の普及がもたらしたもの 英国では現在、総人口の3分の1が携帯電話を保有しており、街の至るところで、着信音を耳にします。性能の向上により、ケータイは非常に使いやすくなりましたが、通話中のドライバーが交通事故をおこすなど、普及に伴って新たな問題も浮上してきています。

We have managed pretty well without mobile phones for more than 100 years, but now, it seems, mobile mania has hit Britain.

It is estimated that more than 24 million Brits own their own cell phone — that's approximately one-third of the population. And it is reckoned that that fraction will increase to around one-half by the end of the year. It's a remarkable growth industry and one which is having a clear effect on the way in which we live, work, socialize and even drive our cars.

You cannot do anything or go anywhere these days without bumping into someone who is using a mobile telephone. Standing in a pub, lift or enclosed space when a mobile phone goes off, you will inevitably witness a classic comedy sketch as just about everyone within ear-shot reaches for their handset.

Unfortunately, you cannot escape them either, whether in a restaurant where you want to have a quiet meal or even on the golf course. A ringing handset (silly jingle an optional extra) is now as serious a distraction to taking an important putt as a well-timed cough or sneeze.

It's a sign of the times that the British government recently launched a £350,000 (¥63 million) television advertising campaign warning of the dangers of driving while chatting on a handheld receiver. There have been a series of well-documented accidents in which motorists, distracted from the road and not in full control of their vehicle, have killed other drivers or pedestrians.

In Bristol four years ago, an 11-year-old girl was struck down and killed by a motorist using a mobile phone while she waited on the side of the road for her brother. The driver was convicted in court of careless driving, but under existing legislation was fined only £250 (¥45,000) — a sentence that provoked general outrage.

The message of the hard-hitting television advertisements is: "Stay switched on. Switch it off." But while motorists are coming under pressure to modify their behavior, the general population continues to embrace mobile phones with an enthusiasm that the industry can scarcely believe. Alexander Graham Bell, the Scotsman who invented the telephone in 1876, could never have dreamed of the furor.

Just 10 years ago, cell phones were a novelty, almost a designer toy. They became a talking point as yuppies (young urban professionals) and well-heeled executives showed off their bulky, expensive and notoriously unreliable first-generation mobiles. But that's all changed now.

Almost half of the 24 million second-generation cell phones — lighter, smaller digital handsets — currently in use here are prepaid, and many of these are used by teenagers. As children have also caught the bug, their increasing use has led to problems in schools.

It has been reported that high-tech playground bullies are using cell phones to send threatening text messages to their victims, who are often intimidated into submission. Some schools have tried to contain the menace by banning mobiles from their premises. But at least one secondary school here in Bristol has admitted defeat sim ply because of the overwhelming number of pupils trying to hide cell phones in their bags. The school now allows the phones to be used on the playground.

Health concerns over the effects of using mobile phones continue to surface from time to time. Are they responsible for giving users headaches and dizzy spells? "Yes," say some researchers. Network companies reply with an emphatic "no."

Whatever the truth, there is absolutely no sign of a slowdown in sales and use. Companies that make and market mobiles are enjoying a boom. And there is no question of their usefulness in certain situations. Mobile phones have even helped to save lives when coastal walkers have been trapped by an incoming tide or injured climbers, on the side of a mountain.

However, the emergency services — police, fire brigade and ambulance service — are hoping that users become more responsible as time goes on. A worrying number of people are putting an unwelcome burden on these already stretched services with calls of the most trivial kind, pulling resources away from real emergencies.

It will not be too long before a third generation of mobile phones is launched on the market. We can prepare for the advent of cell phones that will allow music and video images of reasonable quality to be downloaded quickly.

Let's hope that by then mobiles will have been banned from the golf course and that it will be socially unacceptable to let your phone ring midway through a romantic meal in a restaurant.

Mobile phones are clearly here to stay — their current popularity and predicted increases in sales testify to that. But we still have a long way to go when it comes to using them properly.

Shukan ST: Feb. 18, 2000

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