Microsoft has shown off its "virtual human" that reacts to a person's emotions, body movements and voice.

Milo, as he is known, is designed for use with the firm's hands-free Xbox 360 motion controller called Kinect.

The technology is the brainchild of veteran UK games designer Peter Molyneux.

"I want to introduce a new revolution in storytelling," he told the TED(Technology, Entertainment and Design) Global conference in Oxford.

"Films, TV, even hallowed books, are just rubbish because they don't involve me," he said. "It's a sea of blandness."

Mr Molyneux said that he wanted to create a character "that seemed alive, that would look me in the eyes, and feel real".

Hidden technology

Milo was first shown off in a demo at the E3 expo in 2009, but has not been seen since.

"There was a huge row online about that with people saying 'this can't be real'," Mr Molyneux said.

The live demonstration used Microsoft's soon-to-be released Kinect controller, which uses a series of sensors, cameras and microphones to interpret a player's intentions.

The demo was conducted by an assistant, who showed Milo exploring a garden, learning to skim stones and finally confiding in him after being told off by his parents.

"We're changing the mind of Milo constantly," he said.

"No two people's Milos can be the same – you are actually sculpting a human being. Some of the things you are doing will change the course of his life."

Peter Molyneux’s first game was a text-based business simulation game in 1984

Mr Molyneux said Milo had been built using artificial intelligence developed by his firm Lionhead studios, along with technology that was "hidden in the dusty vaults of Microsoft".

He said the system exploited psychological techniques to make a person feel that Milo was real.

In addition, software allowed "complete control" over subtle facial elements such as blushing and even the diameter of Milo's nostrils, which he said could denote stress.

"Most of it is just a trick – but it is a trick that actually works," he said.

During the demonstration, the player egged Milo on to squash a snail in the garden.

Mr Molyneux said that commands such as these were interpreted by Milo using voice-recognition software along with a database that attempted to interpret the players intonation and meaning.

These seemingly inconsequential events could also impact on Milo's later life and development in the game, he said.

The demonstration showed the initial stages of the game, where players learn to interact with Milo.

"After three-quarters of a hour, he recognises you," said Mr Molyneux.

"I can promise you that if you are sitting in front of this screen, that is a truly wonderful moment."

He said that the later stages of the game, which were not shown, allowed a player to explore the landscape with Milo more freely.

"There are lots of adventures – some of which are quite dark," he said.

At the moment, the technology is still in development and Microsoft has no plans to release it, he said.

However, he hinted that the game was designed to be used for millions of people and therefore could one day become a comemrical product.

"His mind is based in the cloud," he told the audience. "As millions of people use it, Milo will get smarter."

‘Good news’

Mr Molyneux showed off the technology at TED Global (Technology, Entertainment and Design), the European version of an established US event.

The invitation-only conferences explore "ideas worth spreading" and have featured talks by the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown and Nobel laureates as well as lesser-known technologists and designers.

This theme of this year's event is, "and now the good news".

"Good news has become a near-extinct species," said Bruno Giussani, European director of TED at the opening of the conference.

"But if you dig deeper, there is new technology, new science, new art, new ways of collaborating that offer a more hopeful view of the future."

Invited speakers at this year's TED include a voting system designer, a women's rights activist, a green chef and a physicist who runs a lab that aims to allow anyone to make almost anything.

Each is given 18 minutes in front of the audience.

This year's conference runs from 13 to 16 July in Oxford, UK.

The website went under in 2009

A row has erupted in the United States centring on the ownership of a gay teenagers' database.

The owner of XY Magazine and its associated website – which catered for young homosexual boys – filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

XY's creditors have applied for the firm's one remaining valuable asset: its database of one million users.

But the Federal Trade Commission has expressed its concerns and said the sale "could violate Federal law".

The issue of selling databases is not new, but it is the sensitivity of this particular database that is catching the attention of lawmakers.

The list contains details of tens of thousands of young men, the majority of whom will be gay.

Writing on the technology blog Read Write Web, Curt Hopkins summed up the concern felt by many users.

"The selling off of private information, gathered under the supposition of privacy, is bad enough," he wrote.

"Even worse if you're forced into it.

"And positively untenable when the information is connected to kids who are dealing with a dawning sexual reality that in some instances is even more fraught than what straight kids go through," he added.

Simon Davies, director of the human rights campaign group Privacy International, told BBC News that while privacy policy was very clear, in the event of bankruptcy or winding-up "all bets are off".

"Information shouldn't be used for a purpose other than for which it was originally intended," he said.

"In the UK, it would be hard – under normal circumstances – to take a database and apply it for another purpose.

"However, in the real world, when a firm goes into receivership, all bets are off when it comes to protection, because everyone's scrabbling for something of value.

"It's yet another hurdle for data protection advocates to jump through," he added.

Wound up

XY's founding editor, Peter Ian Cummings, filed for bankruptcy in February 2010. He listed his personal assets at $1,500, a net income of zero and one other asset: the "customer list, personal data and editorial and back issues of XY Magazine and XY.com"

Shoshanna Schiff, a partner with the Trenk law firm – representing the creditors – told the US website Cnet.com: "Any property listed on the debtor's bankruptcy petition is property of the bankruptcy estate and my client intends to administer those assets for the benefit of creditors."

Mr Davies said that the UK Information Commissioner had an obligation to protect any British citizens who may be on the database.

"I would argue that this is a case where the Information Commissioner should write directly to the US and ensure action is taken."

Steve Ballmer showed off a slate device by HP in January 2010

Tablet devices which run the Windows 7 operating system will launch in the coming months, according to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

Asus, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, and Sony are among the manufacturers working on Windows slate PCs, he told delegates at a company conference.

Mr Ballmer said the area was "terribly important" to Microsoft, but did not mention any specific release dates.

Apple's iPad touch-screen device sold 3 million units within 80 days of launch.

"This year, one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates," Mr Ballmer said at the firm's annual World Partner Conference.

The devices will come in various forms, some dockable and some with keyboards, he added.

In April 2010, Microsoft shelved development of the Courier, a dual-screen tablet device, and rumours have swirled about the future of HP's slate, which was revealed by Steve Ballmer at technology fair CES in January 2010.

The device has not been brought to market, but Mr Ballmer did name HP as one of the manufacturers working with Microsoft on Windows tablet devices.

Cloud looming

Tim Danton, editor on PC Pro magazine, said that the challenge for Microsoft in the tablet market was that the Windows operating systems were not designed for a touch screen format.

"They are fundamentally built for a mouse and keyboard – trying to develop everything for touch is very different," he said.

"Windows 7 has some touch functionality, but it is still not a core part of the operating system. Microsoft would be better looking at its Windows 7 phone operating system and using that."

Mr Ballmer also said that cloud computing, in which devices use internet-based programmes and storage rather than hardware, is a priority for Microsoft.

"We are at an inflection point in technology history," he said.

"For customers, cloud computing creates tremendous value, which translates to massive opportunity for Microsoft and its partners."

Robert Wahbe, Microsoft's Vice President, Servers and Tools, wrote in a blog post that the firm was "investing deeply" in cloud computers with products such as Windows Azure, a cloud-based platform.

However, while some market analysts are predicting that the area will continue to grow in terms of popularity and investment, others are more cautious.

"The amount of cloud computing is quite small at the moment, so even if it does double that is not such a big deal", said analyst Laurent Lachal at rival research firm Ovum.

The Social Connector in Outllook unites Facebook and e-mail

Microsoft has integrated Facebook into its Outlook e-mail system in its latest move towards the social web.

Users of Outlook will be able to see the Facebook profile photos of their e-mail contacts, plus their news feeds, status updates, pictures uploads and wall posts.

Currently people will only be able to view Facebook pages rather than update them via their e-mail account.

The move follows an integration between Outlook and business network LinkedIn.

Not spectacular

The add-on to Microsoft Outlook's Social Connector is available for download immediately.

Chris Adams, Microsoft's Office 2010 product manager said: "The Outlook Social Connector and providers from partners such as Facebook makes it easy and convenient for busy people to stay in touch with the people they care about."

Microsoft has long seen pulling the social web into its suite of products as a key part of its strategy.

Last year it launched Outlook Social Connector as part of its new Office 2010 software which went on sale in June.

Nate Elliott, a principal analyst with research firm Forrester, said the news would have more impact for the companies involved than for consumers.

"I'm not convinced it is a huge deal from the consumers' point of view as it doesn't really change the social media experience," he said.

"Pulling in a photo of someone in your contacts list isn't that spectacular. It does allow you to add people to your Facebook account but that is a relatively minor piece of functionality," he added.

For Microsoft though it is an acknowledgement that the social web is here to stay, thinks Mr Elliott.

"Microsoft has always maintained that it has its own social network in Windows Messeger so it is pretty notable that it is reaching beyond its own products," he said.

And for Facebook, the more integration it gets in other key software products the more likely it is to maintain its dominance of the social web.

"A few years ago Facebook took over from MySpace but the threat of people switching away from Facebook still exists," said Mr Elliott.

To avoid the privacy issue that blew up when Google integrated its social network Buzz into GMail, Microsoft has made sure that only Outlook e-mail addresses linked to Facebook accounts will be drawn into the system.

Gartner predicts that by 2014 social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for communication for 20% of business users.

Tokyo is viewed as a high-tech hub

Police stations without computers, 30-year-old "on hold" tapes grinding out tinny renditions of Greensleeves, ATMs that close when the bank does, suspect car engineering, and kerosene heaters but no central heating.

A dystopian vision of a nation with technology stuck in an Orwellian time warp? Not at all. These are aspects of contemporary, low-tech Japan that most visitors miss as they look around the hi-tech nation that its government, electronics industry and tourism board are keen to promote.

Tech-savvy internationalised companies such as Panasonic characterise that familiar but smaller segment of Japan Inc. The second much larger, and often subsidised economy, comprises overstaffed family-run firms that are decidedly low-tech and high-priced.

Digital divide

When the business and tech-focused Fast Company magazine released its list of most innovative companies in 2010 only one Japanese company made the selection, and that was a retailer.

So what could account for Japan's lack of international clout tech-wise? Some blame its focus on the domestic market, a low-quality, inefficient workforce and poor working conditions. There is also the digital divide.

Despite the country's showy internet speeds and some of the cheapest broadband around many Japanese are happier doing things the old way.

Figures for internet users in Japan remain around 70% compared to neighbouring South Korea's 82%.

And even among those online there is a divide between those who are dependent on the internet and those who could live without it.

One government poll shows that although 44% of Japanese use the internet at least once or twice a month, the rest responded that they use it "hardly at all" or "not at all".

Considering Japan's top heavy society of over 50s, many of whom have not got to grips with the internet, and who make up 30% of the population and that figure begins to make sense.

New paradigm

Not everyone wants to spend their whole time online

Many of Japan's older men — who are those most likely to run a business — have a marked preference to stay offline even in the office, says Tokyo-based entrepreneur Terrie Lloyd.

"There is a clear cut-off for Japanese bosses who know how to use PCs and mobile web-capable devices and those who don't," he said.

"The easiest way to tell is whether they have an e-mail address on the all-important name card. If they're over 50 and don't have an e-mail address, it's a dead giveaway that you either use the phone or forget about contacting them."

Some say this technophobic demographic helps explain why many of Japan's industries do not benefit from IT.

"The world shifted into an entirely new paradigm, not only of wealth creation (which moved away from manufacturing hard goods to software and intellectual property), but also of culture," says Alex Kerr, author of an in-depth anaysis of Japan's contemporary ills, Dogs and Demons.

"Oblivious to all this, Japan's government ministries, colleges, and big industry went on doing everything the old time- tested Japanese way."

Digital publishing

This backward approach surprises many people.

Talking in Tokyo at a symposium organised by Wired magazine 15 years ago, Nicholas Negroponte director of the Media Lab at MIT warned Japan against becoming one of the "digital homeless."

The country's refusal to shift to digital economies in some areas means this prophecy, to an extent, has come alarmingly true.

Japan's publishing industry is just one example. For years it has resisted change and only recently moved to accommodate a perceived shift to digitisation and the rise of the e-book.

"It goes without saying that eventually Japan will have to find a way to make peace with digital publishing," says tech analyst Steven Nagata. "But the majors of the publishing industry have made it clear that it will not happen until they have no other choice,"

Elsewhere in Japan the forces of reaction are only now starting to go along with the pivotal changes offered by hi-tech and globalisation.

Efforts have been slow. Japan's mighty mobile phone companies sneered at the iPhone, then denied it would impact on Japan, and only now after its success there are they considering their options.

According to Seed Planning of Tokyo 1.7m iPhones were sold in Japan in 2009, giving it a market share of 15%. In 2008 its share stood at 10%.

Some critics point the finger at the country's mandarins and the drag they have had on innovation.

"The good days walked out the door and no-one noticed, because we were never told of the danger; rather, missed a golden opportunity to carry the innovation fire and spread it forever," says blogger Hideki Onda.

"Political issues and bureaucracy caused our profit from the 70's to 90's to be spent on a regional and sociopolitical food chain," he said.

"And now, for example, Japan cannot make a sensible decision on the likes of spectrum use freed up by TV going digital. It's a big mess."

Although some ministries were visionary, in implementing projects to deliver the world's first cheap, mass market fibre-optic broadband service for example, many others are seen as antediluvian in their attitudes.

Peep into the offices in Tokyo's administration district and you find out why. Here PCs are rare and work carries on in the slow lane.

"Japanese banks, post offices, government offices, all are staffed with three to five times the employees because they must do every process once on paper and then again on computer," says Taro Hitachi a technical editor and patent reader at Hitachi.

"Do you see the pattern here? Japanese aren't all that happy about spiteful machines and distrust automation."

Is Japan burying its head in the sand when it comes to new tech?

This technological divide goes hand in hand with Japan's much touted "Galapagos" status. Like the plants and creatures on those islands Japan's tech standards and business practices have developed a unique character incompatible with anything beyonds its borders.

Mr Onda thinks this Galapagos approach was an error perpetuated by the civil servants.

"Anything as foreign and revolutionary as Apple's WYSIWYG GUI operating system will never be accepted, even if it was the best. You see Apple had not paid respects to the Japanese bureaucrats," he said.

To illustrate this, Mr Onda relates a story from 1996 when Apple was keen to puts its computers into Japanese schools. The answer from the Japanese education minister at the time was a curt "No thank-you".

A puzzled Michael Spindler (then Apple's CEO) asked his Japanese colleague when they might return to try again.

In response, his colleague said: "When the 60's-era floor indicator above the ministry's elevator door goes digital."

Programs can be built by clicking and dragging blocks

Google has released tools that "make it easy for anyone to create programs for Android phones".

Much like Lego, App Inventor lets people drag "blocks" of code around to create applications.

Google said it had been working on the system for a year and were pitched at those with little knowledge of programming.

The tools have been tested over the last 12 months by school children and college students, it said.

The graphical blocks represent the different functions and capabilities of a smartphone.

For instance, one tester of the App Inventor used the GPS locator, timer, and database querying blocks to produce an app that told his friends where he was every 15 minutes.

MIT inside

The programming system was developed with the help of computer scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who created a similar coding system known as Open Blocks.

MIT scientist Mitch Resnick used it to create the Scratch programming language that lets children put together programs by clicking and dragging on-screen blocks.

A Gmail account is required for anyone wanting to use the tools and users must apply via a web form. Tutorials are provided to help people get started with the tools.

The tool may well prompt a spike in the number of apps for Android phones which, statistics suggest, are already enjoying a healthy growth.

Figures gathered by Android app site AndroLib predict that the number of applications will pass the 100,000 mark by the end of July 2010, a ten fold increase compared to this time last year. However, it still has less than half the number of apps available for Apple's iPhone.

Seven million jobs were advertised online in 2009, claims the manifesto

UK digital champion Martha Lane Fox has announced plans to get everybody of working age in Britain online by the end of the current Parliament.

There are currently 10 million Britons who are not on the net, she claims.

She also says no-one should reach retirement age without gaining experience of using the web.

Ms Lane Fox will present her manifesto, Networked Nation, at Downing Street later. Prime Minister David Cameron has already praised her goals.

"In the internet age, we need to ensure that people aren't being left behind as more and more services and business move online," he said.

"Promoting digital inclusion is essential for a dynamic modern economy and can help to make government more efficient and effective."

Ms Lane Fox said the government, businesses and charities needed to work together to "deliver positive social change" by getting more people using the internet.

"By getting more people online, everybody wins," she said.

She called for the government to install "digital champions" in every local authority, public library and Jobcentre Plus office by the end of 2010.

Her website, Race Online 2012, is asking for people already online to sign up to volunteer, donate money or equipment, take part in organising events or contribute their own ideas about how to get others connected.

The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones warned that finding the cash to support the aims of Network Nation would be a challenge.

"The campaign has set itself an extraordinarily ambitious target – and at a time when government money is in very short supply," he said.

"With spending on IT in schools already being slashed, and doubts over funding for public internet access schemes, Martha Lane Fox will have to look to the private sector to do much of the work.

"And one other problem – amongst those targeted by this mission, a stubborn minority continue to see few reasons why they should bother with the internet."

The new reporting system will alert Facebook and Ceop if needed

Facebook has announced it is to launch a "panic button" application on its social networking site.

The button, aimed at children and teenagers, will report abuse to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) and Facebook.

The application will also appear on their homepage to say that "they are in control online".

The launch follows months of negotiation between Ceop and Facebook, which initially resisted the idea.

Ceop, the government law enforcement agency tasked with tracking down online sex offenders, called for a panic button to be installed on social networking sites last November.

Bebo became the first network to add the button with MySpace following suit, but Facebook resisted the change, saying its own reporting systems were sufficient.

Pressure mounted on Facebook following the rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by a 33-year-old convicted sex offender, posing as a teenage boy, who she met on Facebook.

Forty-four police chiefs in England, Wales and Scotland, signed a letter backing Ceop's call for a panic button on every Facebook page.

‘Reassurance for parents’

The agreement to launch a child safety application is the culmination of months of negotiation between Ceop and Facebook.

Jim Gamble, Ceop's chief executive, said in a statement: "Our dialogue with Facebook about adopting the ClickCeop button is well documented – today however is a good day for child protection.

"By adding this application, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCeop button which should provide reassurance to every parent with teenagers on the site."

Facebook's head of communications in the UK, Sophy Silver, told BBC News that the new app would integrate reporting into both Facebook and Ceop's systems.

"Both sides are happy of where we have got to," she said.

"We still have the Facebook reporting system and by having a pre-packaged application that users play an active part in, you not only help keep them safe, it makes all of their friends aware too, and acts as a viral awareness campaign.

"Ultimately though, this makes for a safer environment for users and that's the most important part," she added.

In addition to the online reporting application, a new Facebook/Ceop page is being set up, with a range of topics that, it is hoped, will be of interest to teenagers – such as celebrities, music and exams – and will link these subjects to questions about online safety.

A problem with the undersea cable that brought high-speed net access to East Africa has been identified.

The cable owners, Seacom, said the faulty section is "at one of the deepest points along its route, some 4700m below sea level".

The cable, finished in 2009, connects South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique to Europe and Asia.

Seacom said repairs could take up to two weeks, giving a provisional end date of 22 July 2010.

In a statement, it said the fault may require robotic tools "to be deployed to locate and retrieve the cable for repairs to be undertaken on board the specialised repair ship, before replacing the cable back on the ocean floor."

Restoring capacity

The firm said it had been working, since the problem was first reported on 5 July, to find alternative methods to route internet traffic, including alternative cables.

The Seacom cable was completed in July 2009

In an update on 9 July, Seacom said: "The deployment of restored capacity via other cable systems has progressed very well and Seacom is pleased with the positive support received from clients and suppliers alike.

"In addition to the alternative capacity already in place, Seacom will also continue to source and activate additional capacity to meet customer requirements for the duration of the repairs."

When the cable was completed in July 2009, it promised to bring cheap internet access across the region. However, experts say that costs are beyond many people who live in the region.

So far, the fault has mostly affected home users, as many businesses in the region have back-up plans for such problems.

It is the second major outage the cable has experienced since it went live.

Outages of this kind happen periodically. A cable cut in the Mediterranean in 2008 temporarily disrupted up to 70% of internet traffic to Egypt and 60% to India.

News of the outage came as another cable – the Main One cable linking Europe with Western Africa – was switched on.

It is still not known when Australia’s filtering bill will go before parliament

The Australian government is conducting an independent review of websites due to be blocked by its controversial internet filter.

The country's Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said the review was needed to see if the scheme "reflects current community standards".

The project has attracted widespread criticism over what is perceived by some as government censorship.

Parliament has yet to vote on making filtering a legal requirement.

Mr Conroy said the review would look at what makes up content that currently falls under a rating, unique to Australia, called "refused classification" (RC).

In Australia, films that feature a high level of sexual or violent content, or that deal with matters involving "drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena" and "offend the standards of morality" are rated RC and are banned from sale, although in most states it is legal to own or import them from overseas.

The rating system also applies to video games and online content, which critics said did not work in a digital age.

"Some sections of the community have expressed concern about whether the range of material included in the Refused Classification category correctly reflects current community standards," Mr Conroy said.

Filtering concerns

Geordie Guy, vice chairman of the online liberties and rights watchdog Electronic Frontiers, told BBC News that the filtering was tied in with a rating that does not exist anywhere else in the world.

"We're the only country to have a wacky category; this is the stuff that they intend to block," he said.

"Although video games are rated Mature Audience 15+, the associated websites are 18s so all these websites would be blocked."

A previous consultation into whether video games should be able to get an R18+ rating found that out of almost 60,000 votes, nearly 98.2 percent of Australians were in favour.

"They said they would have a look at that [video games] and that's all we've heard," said Mr Guy.

"Whenever there is a consultation, if the government doesn't get the answer they want, they either have another consultation or put it on the back burner.

"Given that the goalposts on the filtering keep on moving – and the issue of who is going to pay for the costs – the earliest we could see the filtering bill go in front of the Australian parliament is September; but it could be towards the end of next year," he added.

There have been calls for the filtering list, compiled by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, to be made public.

The list has been available to the countries internet service providers (ISPs) who can voluntarily opt into the scheme.

Three of the country's internet service providers have already agreed to block a list of sites linked to child abuse.

Senator Conroy said the list could not be published because it provides "direct access to child abuse material", but would be regularly reviewed.

"The public needs to have confidence that the URLs on the list, and the process by which they get there, is independent, rigorous, free from interference or influence and enables content and site owners access to appropriate review mechanisms," he said.

But Mr Guy said that the government should publish the part of the list covering sites that are 'legal' in Australia, but fall foul of its rating system.

"We shouldn't be cracking down on which sites people can view; we should be taking on the people who are running illegal sites," he said.

The Australian Green Senator, Scott Ludlam, was quoted as saying there were a few reasons for the change.

"We have got a leadership change, we have got an election looming and they are trying to clear away bad news," he said.

"This issue has been a real source of bad news for the last 18 months and I think also we are seeing an acknowledgment of the deep flaws in the proposals."

Mobile phones have taken the world by storm

More than a billion mobile phone connections have been added to the global tally in just 18 months, according to Wireless Intelligence.

There are now more than five billion connections worldwide.

In many regions, penetration exceeds 100%, where there is more than one connection per person in the country.

Ben Wood, mobile phone analyst at CCS Insight said the mobile phone may be "the most prolific consumer device on the planet".

"If you just take the UK in 1987, when the first mobile companies launched, an industry insider predicted a maximum of 10,000 phones.

"Now almost every adult, child and domestic pet seems to have one, given that 30 million phones are sold every year in the UK," he said.

Rapid growth

The four billion connections mark was surpassed at the end of 2008, and analysts at Wireless Intelligence predict six billion connections worldwide by the middle of 2012.

The Asia-Pacific region including India and China is the main source of growth, accounting for 47% of of global mobile connections at the end of June 2010, according to the firm.

"Five billion phones means there are more than three times as many phones as personal computers," said Mr Wood.

"This device has become part of the fabric of society, whether a teenage girl taking a Blackberry to bed with her, or a farmer in an African village trying to find out the latest crop prices."

He added that more than 10 billion phones have been sold worldwide since 1994, with market giant Nokia selling 3.4 billion alone.

"This means that there are 5 billion phones sitting in people's bottom drawers somewhere," he said.

High penetration

In western Europe, mobile phone penetration has reached 130%, which Mr Wood attributed in part to mobile phone operators including in their statistics connections that have been dormant for many months.

"But often people have more than one phone, a home phone and a work phone," he said.

"The growth of connected devices will also drive this phenomenon, a laptop with a USB dongle, the Apple iPad, and so on.

"In the future, that market is likely to explode."

According to the latest figures, mobile penetration has reached 52% in Africa

In rapidly developing eastern Europe, overall penetration is not far behind western Europe, at 123%, according to Wireless Intelligence.

Ian Fogg, mobile phone analyst at Forrester Research said: "An increasing number of phone users in emerging markets such as eastern Europe will use more than one SIM card in the same phone, in order to get the best deals."

"Some mobile companies are now launching mobile phones with more than one SIM slot to take advantage of this phenomenon," he said.

Mr Wood added: "As the eastern bloc crumbled, mobile phone networks were deployed, and people skipped fixed line telephones altogether, in favour of mobiles.

"We are likely to see a similar phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa, though it will be limited by financial considerations.

"There are still levels of poverty there that keep the mobile phone unaffordable."