The line graph shows the number of mobile phone and landline subscriptions per 100 people in one country between 1998 and 2018.
Overall, mobile subscriptions grew enormously while landline subscriptions fell after an initial rise, so mobile phones replaced landlines as the dominant technology. By the end of the period there were more mobile subscriptions than people.
In 1998 there were only 8 mobile subscriptions per 100 people, far fewer than the 52 landlines. Mobile numbers then soared to 45 in 2003 and 95 in 2008, overtaking landlines at some point in between. The figure passed 100 by 2012, when it reached 118, and growth slowed thereafter, with 125 in 2015 and 128 in 2018.
Landline subscriptions followed a very different course. They rose from 52 per 100 people in 1998 to a peak of 58 in 2003, which was marginally above the mobile figure of 45 at that time. They then declined consistently, to 48 in 2008 and 36 in 2012. The fall continued to 26 in 2015, and landlines ended the period at 18 per 100 people, less than a third of their peak and only one-seventh of the mobile figure.