Submitted by Mike Grenville on Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:37

With 2007 being greeted with the highest ever number of SMS at 29% more than last year, the MDA predicts another year of growth for text messaging in the UK.

On Christmas Day industrious texters sent over 205 million texts, an average of 8 million per hour. As 2007 dawned it seems that people in the UK were checking their phones as intently as their clocks with New Years Day (counting text messages sent between midnight 31st December 2006 and midnight 1st January 2007) text messaging figures reaching a record breaking 214 million, almost 9 million per hour and the highest daily total ever recorded by the MDA.

Person-to-person texts sent across the UK GSM network operators on New Year’s Day 2006 show a growth of 29% on the 2006 figure of 165 million, as increasing numbers of people chose text messaging to convey New Year messages. Previous New Year’s Day SMS Figures Monitored by the MDA in the UK were 111 million in 2004, 133 million in 2005 and 165 million in 2006.

The MDA has forecast that figures will continue to rise this year to deliver an annual total of 45 billion text messages for 2007, with an average of 3.75 billion messages being sent per month and 123 million messages per day.

Likewise the amount of SMS sent globally over New Year increased over 30 per cent compared to last year according to LogicaCMG, to reach a staggering 33 billion messages sent worldwide. In France there was a 28 per cent growth and in Thailand close to 50 per cent growth.

These statistics, which prove the continuing significance of SMS to the lives of billions of people, are being attributed to increased use of SMS by groups outside of the traditional young user segments. Responsible for handling more than half of all messages sent in the world, LogicaCMG has calculated that its systems processed around 18 billion messages on New Year’s Day, up one-third from the previous year.

With around two billion active SMS users worldwide it is by far the largest messaging community in the world, and with mobile penetration on the rise the future looks bright for SMS as the consumers’ choice for mobile communication.

Across the globe, record traffic growth in established messaging markets combined with a number of newer emerging SMS markets caused a volume growth of messages far beyond anticipated levels. LogicaCMG, the messaging specialist that serves over one billion subscribers in 135 countries across six continents, saw new traffic records for the last festive season across the majority of the world’s mobile markets.

Henk de Boer, senior vice president, messaging, at LogicaCMG said: “The double-digit growth of SMS sent globally proves that its relevance in the lives of people is stronger than ever. Mobile users are able to fully rely on the capability of SMS to guarantee real-time delivery of their personal messages to businesses, friends and family at time critical moments.

“LogicaCMG expects this trend to continue further still as SMS and internet-based messaging services such as mobile instant messaging are made interoperable. This New Year has demonstrated that far from reaching an end, SMS and mobility remain a key part of tomorrow’s lifestyle. ” added de Boer.