Text Continues To Shine In May

The text message phenomenon continued to prevail in May with 1.7 billion messages sent across the four UK GSM networks, according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

May’s daily average number of text messages was 55 million, compared to 45 million in the year previous and 30 million in May 2001.

May’s figures take the cumulative annual total of text messages to 8.2 billion. The month also marks five years of monthly MDA text releases and continuous growth for messaging. In June 1998 there were 9.6 million customers compared to 50 million today.

According to the MDA, 64% of mobile users have sent a text message at some time, up from just 0.1% five years ago. During the interim period, text traffic has grown more than 40 times faster than the customer base. Since the MDA started collating figures, approximately 45 billion person-to-person text messages have been sent.

Mike Short, chairman of the MDA, commented: “In 1998 there were no info alerts, limited mobile content, no text TV or mobile banking, short codes and mobile marketing, or colour screens, ringtones and games. Most of us thought that Mobile Internet was the next big thing. However we did have early text experience and the beginnings of WAP.”

The MDA recently unveiled a common code of practice for premium rate SMS services that use short codes from mobile networks (see MDA Announces Common Short Codes For Mobiles).

Mobile Data Association: 01922 419600www.mda-mobiledata.org

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