Cellphone use rockets

By Richard Braddell

WELLINGTON - Mobile telephone use is growing at more than 1 per cent a month, with the numbers connected to Telecom's network up by half on a year ago.

Telecom said yesterday that its mobile subscribers had reached 760,800 at September 30, up from 504,000 a year earlier and 83,700 more than at June 30.

That, combined with the 293,000 Vodafone subscribers reported last week, takes the number of users to 1.05 million, or 27 per cent of the population.

Vodafone's subscriber numbers were up about 93,000 from June 9.

Telecom expects already healthy pre-paid sales to be even stronger in the lead-up to Christmas.