Brits love bundles - and payphones

Over the past few years, telcos have been remodelling themselves as converged communications companies - and it seems consumers are beginning to bite with more and more of us buying bundled services, particularly in the UK.

According to research from the European Commission into the communications landscape of the average household, 20 per cent of the continent's shoppers now buy bundled communications packages. The figure is slightly higher among UK households, at 24 per cent.

The shape of Europe's communications is changing in other ways too - with greater numbers of homes now shunning fixed-lines altogether. The EC study found 22 per cent of homes are mobile only - an increase of four per cent on last year's figures. In the UK, only 13 per cent of households have got rid of their landline.

And as fixed-lines get increasingly neglected, VoIP is becoming more of a communications staple for the Europeans: 17 per cent of internet-enabled households now make calls over the web, with most VoIP users making calls to those subscribing to the same service.

The UK trails slightly behind the European average with 11 per cent of internet-enabled households using VoIP.

And while Blighty is moving gradually towards adopting new types of telephony, it seems there are some old school types among us. According to the report: "The highest numbers of Greeks, Brits and Latvians as well as Turks indicate that somebody in their household makes use of public payphones. Conversely, practically no one in Finnish, Swedish, Slovenian, Cypriot and Danish households uses public payphones."