Record Text Messaging Figures For July

An average of 113 million messages were sent per day throughout July, and the total is an increase of almost 30% on the total sent during the same period in 2005. Prior to July, the highest ever total of text messages recorded was 3.37 billion in June 2006.

Over 21 billion person-to-person text messages have been sent across the UK’s networks so far during 2006, which is well on the way to surpassing the MDA’s annual forecast of 36.5 billion. Because of this the MDA have increased their prediction to 40 billion for the year.

The MDA says that the World Cup played its part in the huge amount of text sent during the month, with 140 million sent on July 1, when England played Portugal (this figure is second only to the current daily record of 165 million messages sent on New Year’s Day this year). The MDA also says that arrangements being made via SMS during school holidays also contributed to the large monthly total.