New Year Text Message Craze Sets Record

Britain’s mobile phone users welcomed in 2005 with a record-setting flurry of text messages, according to the Mobile Data Association, sending a massive 133 million texts between midnight on 31 December 2004 and midnight on January 1st.

The total recorded messages sets a new record daily total, with person to person texts sent across the UK’s mobile networks on New Year’s Day showing an increase of 20% compared with figure of 111 million recorded at the beginning of 2004.

The MDA’s statistics show a continuing popularity for text messaging over the past year, with 2004 seeing more messages sent per day than at any time since records began. An average of 68.5 million text messages were sent each day during the year, compared with 56.2 million in 2003, 46 million in 2002 and 33.4 million in 2001.

Late last year the MDA released data showing the popularity of high tech mobiles, allowing users to send pictures and surf the internet, is higher than ever. The MDA claims that, from a total active customer base of over 53 million, GPRS enabled devices topped 26 million during September, an increase of 10% on the previous quarter and double that of last quarter of 2003 (see Mobile Internet And Picture Messaging Enjoy Massive Growth).

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

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