Submitted by Mike Grenville on Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:24

Over one billion text messages are sent every week in the UK, with September 2007 reaching an average of over 1.2 billion messages every week, the same number of messages sent during the whole of 1999.

After a gap in regular publication, the Mobile Data Association (MDA) has announced figures today that show that during September 4,825 billion messages were sent person to person across the UK GSM operators.

This is 173 million per day and works out at an average of 70 text messages per person per month in the UK. This is a 25% growth compared to 2006 and has caused the MDA to revise it annual predicted total figure from 48bn to 52bn messages in 2007.

The 15th anniversary of the first SMS is approaching in December and the September weekly average of 1,2 billion messages every week shows just how far the industry has grown as this is the same number of messages sent during the whole of 1999.

Reasons For Growth

Texting is a very personal way to communicate which has meant that it has spread through all levels of society across economic groups as well as both the young and old who continue to embrace SMS in increasing numbers. Once people get the texting habit and build a cicrle of contacts that they text, their usage automatically grows.

Another important key to the success of SMS is its simplicity. "In an industry plagued by complexity and compatibility issues, text messaging is simple and effective technology that works on every phone, at home or abroad" said Short.

Although the MDA figures only include those messages sent from phones and not applications, Short notes that UK businesses have woken up to the potential of SMS. "We have seen a significant increase in companies communicating with customers and employees via SMS" he said.

"The UK text volumes show no real signs of abating and the UK sits within the top six of the Global league of countries sending text messages" said Short.