In many parts of the world, mobile phones will soon rival PCs for gaining internet access according to the Face of the Web, an Ipsos Insight annual study of internet trends. France and the U.K are exhibiting the strongest growth in this trend; moreover, 4 in 10 adults browse the web on wireless handsets in Japan, double the rate from 2003. But in the U.S. and Canada, growth rates for browsing via mobile are flat, because wireless access via notebooks/laptops is emerging as the preferred platform.

Globally, 28 percent of mobile phone owners have browsed the internet on a wireless handset, up from 25 percent at the end 2004. Growth came from older users (age 35+), indicating a mainstreaming of that activity.

SMS text messaging remains the most popular activity, with other communication-based activities also growing: 52 percent of mobile phone households have sent or received a text message, and 37 percent have sent or received email on a mobile phone.

Mobile phone ownership at the end of 2005 was at near saturation levels in many parts of the world; in East Asia, over 90 percent of all households in South Korea, Japan and urban China own at least one mobile phone, according to Ipsos. Western Europe ranks second, with roughly 80 percent of households owning a wireless handset. Three in four households in the U.S., and just over 60 percent in Canada, own a mobile phone.

In 2005, more than two-thirds of all households worldwide that owned a mobile phone owned multiple handsets; the average number of handsets is 2.2, slightly more than 2.1 in 2004.

The Face of the Web also reveals a strong association between internet use and mobile phone ownership. Among those who had gone online in the past 30 days, household mobile phone ownership was over 90 percent in 10 of the 12 global markets studied.