Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Not maybe, definitely. But we're not talking eavesdropping here, we're talking about real bugs: bacteria. Millions of them. More in fact than your average toilet seat. And you wouldn't put your face close to one of those, would you?
This disturbing statistic comes from a survey conducted by UK mobile phone retailer, Dial-a-Phone. The study took swabs from a variety of everyday objects and analysed the bacteria found on them. "The shocking results found that there's more muck on our mobiles than the average door handle, keyboard, and bottom of a shoe or even a toilet seat," Dial-a-Phone reports.
The research confirmed the presence of skin bacteria including staphylococcus aureus on the phone, keyboard, toilet seat and door handle. The shoe in contrast, and hardly surprisingly, had bacteria from the soil and air.
Dial-a-Phone quoted Joanne Verran, professor of microbiology at Manchester Metropolitan University saying: "The phones contained more skin bacteria than the any other object; this could be due to the fact that this type of bacteria increases in high temperatures and our phones are perfect for breeding these germs as they're kept warm and cosy in our pockets, handbags and brief cases. These bacteria are toxic to humans, and can cause infections if they have the opportunity to enter the body."
A Dial-a-Phone spokesperson "Our advice to phone users is to ensure they clean them regularly with an antibacterial wipe!"
There is however another solution. Motorola announced recently that it was supplying handsets coated with a compound from a company called AgION that contains microscopic particles of silver, which has a strong anti-bacterial effect. Motorola says it is "the first and only manufacturer to offer mobile devices that feature AgION's antimicrobial technology for product protection."
However the only phones sold by Motorola so treated are for use on iDEN networks not the much more popular cellular networks.
David Bass
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