There are now 2 billion mobile phones in use around the world! According to a report by Wirless Intelligence, "the middle of September 05 saw a significant milestone reached in the cellular world as the total number of connections worldwide passed through 2 billion. According to our calculations this happened on Sunday 18th September. The growth rate is impressive - after clocking up 1 billion in 2002, 20 years after cellular was first launched, the 2nd billion came up in just 3 years." The Register adds that "most of the growth now is obviously in large developing markets, such as China, India and Africa along with Eastern Europe and Latin America. Western Europe is pretty much mined out, and penetration is expected to exceed 100 per cent in the region by 2007. According to Nokia, which Gartner says sold nearly 32 per cent of all phones in Q2 this year, getting to three billion will take another five years. " Damn, five whole years to reach another billion people. Seems the mobile phone industry's in decline!