BONN (dpa-AFX) - After a temporary increase in Corona times, the use of the fixed-line phone is decreasing again. Last year, there were 80 billion call minutes in the fixed network in Germany and thus 13 billion less than in 2021, the Federal Network Agency announced at the request of dpa. In 2020, there had been 104 billion minutes. At that time, the pandemic, including its restrictions, had ensured that people were at home a lot and again reached for the telephone horn more than before. However, this corona-induced fixed-network renaissance was short-lived, as the figures show.

Interest in the landline phone has been declining for a long time, because many people are increasingly talking to each other via online services such as Whatsapp or Signal, or just chatting. Another factor in the decline in demand is that many cell phone calls are now no longer billed per minute, but are paid for as a flat monthly rate - so it is no more expensive to use a cell phone than a fixed-network phone.

In 2022, all mobile calls in Germany together lasted 159 billion minutes, twice as many call minutes as fixed-network calls. According to the Federal Network Agency, there were 126 minutes per active sim card per month./wdw/DP/zb