Reuters reports that almost one in five European Union households has gone wireless, cutting off their landline cables to use a mobile telephone only, a study by the EU statistical office showed on Tuesday:

"Eurostat said that last year 18 percent of households had mobile phone access only as subscriptions for wireless handsets soared to 95 per 100 habitants in 2005 from eight in 1996. The data embraced all 27 EU countries except Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the bloc this year."

This mirrors a trend here in the U.S., where cell phone-only households have surpassed landline-only homes for the first time this year.

Europeans switching to mobile phones, study shows [Reuters]