Cell phones beat landlines

Germany's statistics office Destatis announced on Tuesday that 93 percent of German households used at least one mobile phone, whereas fixed lines were used in 90 percent of the roughly 40 million households.

It is the first time since the introduction of cell phones 30 years ago that more of them have been used than landlines in Germany.

Fifteen years ago, it was a very different picture - only 11 percent of households used a cell phone, with 97 percent still sticking to a fixed line in the form of a device parked on a table or bench or hung on the wall.

The findings are part of Destatis' Income and Consumption Snapshots, which have been providing data on the living standards of German households over the last 50 years.