i am a lonely node

My other name is Billy No Mates:

Britain now has more mobile phones than people. But more surprising is that, according to Ofcom, 4% of adults aged 25-44 still don't have one. This suggests there exists a small cabal of mobile-phone refuseniks, for whom shunning the mobile is nothing to do with being very old, very young or very hard up, but a lifestyle choice. And it's a theory borne out by my inquiries.

"Not owning a mobile is part of my quest for personal freedom," says 42-year-old sales manager Mark Quigley. "They sell it to you as freedom, but it means you're contactable at all times of day."

Hey, me too. I am not a number – in particular, I am not one of those infuriatingly random digit streams that it’s impossible to memorise – I am…well, a bloke without a mobile phone. It’s a bit much to characterize it as a blow for freedom, though it’s worth noting that mobiles can also be tracking devices.

It has to be said that there is something pleasurable about knowing that you are in a minority of the uncontactable, just as there’s something liberating about not being part of a network. Horizontal hierarchies are still hierarchies. It’s a bit like worrying about being shy when I was a teenager but then realizing that, in fact, I didn’t really have anything to say to these people.

Anyway, I have a postal address, an e-mail address, a landline and a webpage. How much more do you want, you nosy bastards?

The UK's 10 mobile operators have long since declared the UK a saturated market, writing off those who haven't surrendered as a lost cause. "The 60 million people in the UK who have a mobile see and value the benefits," says an O2 spokesperson. "But if a customer sees no benefit in a product, they won't buy it. It's as simple as that."

Thank you. Now fuck off.

Update: a shout of solidarity transmitted by means of a note tied to the foot of a pigeon stuffed into a cleft stick and thrown out of a hot air balloon goes to Chris.

Comments

[dsquared]

[those infuriatingly random digit streams ]

the maths of those digit streams is quite interesting in its own way - you want to put the numbers as far apart as possible so as to minimise the number of accidental wrong dials.

good God I've just realised I am mobileless too - it was a work one and I've just handed it back.

[Matthew]

There's around 20 names on my blogroll, and three of you don't have mobiles. That's nearly 1/6. But you all have weblogs - in fact more than one each. I'd keep it to yourselves...