The British public's love affair with their mobile phones shows no sign of declining, with research suggesting one in five spend a quarter of the day using their mobile.

Sales of mobile phones have slowed down in recent months, but people who own one are using them more, according to a survey commissioned by the First Direct bank.

The report suggests most phone users will happily drop whatever they are doing to answer their mobiles.

One in three owners surveyed said they used their phones more now than they did a year ago.

On a date

Almost 200 million calls are now made every day in the UK.

The survey suggested that most phone owners hardly ever have their mobile switched off.

Nearly one in five of those questioned said they would answer their phone even if they were out on a date.

One in three said they use them to chat in the bath, while one in 10 admitted to taking calls while at the cinema.

Texting on the rise

The survey of 1,000 16-year-olds and above also suggests texting is becoming more and more popular.

The number of adults who now send text messages regularly has risen from 19% to 28% over the past year.

Mobile telephone sales fell for the first time in the industry's history in 2001.

Global sales came in at 399.6 million phones during the year, down 3.2% compared with the previous year.

The fall was blamed on the saturated markets in Europe and on the damage done to the new phone market in developing countries where the second-hand phone market is flourishing.