No Summer Break For Text Messaging Growth
The popularity of text messaging in the UK continued to grow during August, despite this traditionally being a quiet period as schools break-up and families head-off on holiday.
The latest official figures from the Mobile Data Association show that a total of 2.19 billion person to person text messages were sent across the UK’s four GSM networks during August, representing an increase of more than 29% on the same period the previous year.
The UK daily test messaging average for August stands at 71 million, compared with 55 million sent during in the same period the previous year. The overall number of texts sent during the summer months of June, July and August was 6.45 billion.
A total of 79 million text messages were sent on the day the GCSE results were released as school children rushed to share their news with family and friends, proving that text messaging as a form of communication amongst youngsters is more popular than ever.
The Mobile Data Association was recently forced to revise its usage forecasts for the UK’s text messaging services after figures for the first seven months of the year revealed a staggering 15 billion messages had changed hands. The forecast now predicts a total of 25 billion messages for 2004, up from a previous total of 23 billion.
Mobile phones are increasingly becoming more important in our daily lives and Virgin Radio is attempting to capitalise on this by becoming the first UK broadcaster to launch visually enhanced radio for UK mobile phone users (see Virgin Launches Visual Radio For Mobile Phones).
The service will become available early next year when the new generation of visual radio-enabled Nokia handsets launches in the UK. Users will initially be able to access a range of information with red-button style functionality, including play-lists, artist pictures and exclusive news.
Mobile Data Association: 01922 419600 www.mda-mobiledata.org
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