Text Messages Break Records In August

Text message usage in August continued to advance with gusto, extending July’s groundbreaking trend as a total of 87 million text messages were sent on average per day, according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

The MDA revealed that the number of text messages sent in August topped 2.7 billion, with the increasing rise causing the MDA to revise its annual forecast to 32 billion for 2005.

August enjoyed two particularly strong days, with GCSE and A-level results boosting the month’s total. 99 million text messages were sent on August 18th, the issue day for GCSE results, up by 25% on the 79 million on the same day last year, while texts sent on August 25th, the day A-level results were released, hit 99.5 million.

In July, text messages leapt to a remarkable 2.7 billion, with person to person texts sent across the UK GSM network operators showing an increase of 23.5% on the total sent during the same period in 2004 (see Over 100 Billion Texts Sent Across The UK).

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