The chief executive of Nokia has predicted that every other person in the world will own a phone by 2015, as the total number of handsets in circulation hits four billion.

Speaking at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, Jorma Ollila said that two billion people will have mobile phones by 2008, while half of the world's population will be signed up seven years later.

'Mobile communication has the potential to give access to communications to half of the world's population by 2015. This will mean roughly four billion,' he said, according to Reuters.

He forecast most of the growth to come from emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and Russia, and mainly in voice communications.

The avalanche of mobile phones represents a major commercial opportunity for platinum recovery operations.

In the UK the Fonebak scheme, which involves all five of the UK's mobile phone operators, aims to reduce an estimated 15 million mobile phone mountain.