Orange predicts mobile use will soar this Christmas

Orange has predicted a record period for mobile phone use this Christmas, with over a million picture messages expected to be sent on Christmas day alone.

Last year, the mobile phone operator recorded its highest ever volume of text and picture messages, with more than 100 million text messages sent on December 25.

The company also forecasts that this New Years Eve will break records, with over 120 million text messages likely to be sent on the last day of 2009.

Last year, around 106 million text messages and almost a million picture messages were sent on New Years Eve, according to Orange.

In November, Orange launched a partnership with Twitter to allow mobile users to upload pictures to the social networking site via text messages.