Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:45

Canadians sent more than 4.3 billion person-to-person text messages in 2006, almost triple the 1.5 billion messages sent in 2005.

Text message volumes peaked in December 2006 at more than 560 million in that month alone, which represents more than 18 million per day according to The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).

"Although text messaging volumes have been doubling year-over-year since 2002, the extraordinary surge in 2006 is directly related to Canadians' continuing adoption of wireless data services," said Peter Barnes, President and CEO of CWTA. "Canadians continue to be the world's second largest consumers of wireless voice minutes at an average of 400 minutes per month. However, non-voice services such as text messaging, e-mail, gaming, ringtones, music and video now account for more than CAD$1 billion in yearly service provider revenue."

At the end of 2006, Canadian wireless phone subscribers numbered 18.5 million, representing a national wireless penetration rate of approximately 58%. Recent CWTA research estimates wireless penetration in major urban centres has exceeded 70%, with some greater metropolitan areas approaching the 80% mark.