December Beats Records For Text Messaging

Text messaging in 2004 has broken records, the Mobile Data Association has announced, with the total of messages sent throughout the year reaching a phenomenal 26 billion.

December saw the highest number of texts ever recorded in a single month at 2.4 billion, with person to person messages sent across the UK increasing by 26% on the same period in 2003. Last month there were 78 million text messages sent each day, the highest average daily figure ever recorded.

Due to December’s impressive figure, the yearly total for text messaging exceeded the MDA’s previous estimations, rising from 25 billion to 26 billion.

The highest number of texts sent before last month was in October 2004, when 2.3 billion were recorded.

Elsewhere, a collaboration between UK Mobile Operators in aid of the Asian tsunami has seen 3 mobile, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin mobile and Vodafone, offers customers the chance to donate to the disaster relief fund by texting ‘Donate’ to 83321.

This is the first time that the UK’s major mobile operators have joined forces to create a tax-free donation mechanism, with customers having £1.50 added to their bill, or deducted to their credit card when they contribute to the appeal.

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

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