More than 1.68 billion person to person text messages were sent across the four UK GSM networks in July 2003, up from 1.3 billion in the same period the previous year, according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
JulyÂ’s figure takes the total number of text messages sent so far during 2003 to 11.6 billion and puts the MDA on track to hit its annual target of 20 billion messages by the end of this year.
Commenting on the latest figures, Mike Short, chairman of the MDA, said: “Text messaging is continuing to rise in popularity and diversity. As well as person to person text messaging we are seeing an increase in interactive text with programmes, such as Fame Academy and Pop Idol, providing people with the opportunity to vote via a short code across all networks.”.
The MDA is also expecting to see a significant rise in text messaging during August and the latest figures show that 67 million SMS messages were sent on 14 August, A Level results day, compared with 55 million last year.
The number of WAP page impressions viewed in the UK is also increasing and the latest figures reveal a 12% month on month improvement during June to 784 million. (see WAP Usage Continues To Rise During June).
