The text messaging phenomenon continued to grow in June, with an average of 55 million person to person text messages sent across the four UK GSM networks per day, according to statistics from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
The latest figure represents a solid increase on June 2002, when an average of 45 million text messages were sent per day and a big leap from June 2001 when an average of 30 million messages were sent daily.
The statistics reflect previous summer slowdowns and seasonal trends, but take the cumulative total of text messages for 2003 to 10 billion, against a 12 month MDA forecast for the year of 20 billion.
Commenting on the 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 Big Brother, Fame Academy and Pop Idol providing people with the opportunity to vote via a short code across all networks.”
Boost for mobile promotions The MDA recently unveiled a common code of practice for premium rate SMS services that use short codes from mobile networks.
The new code, which attempts to enhance the clarity of short codes, is the product of a year-long consultation with UK mobile operators, 02, Orange, T-mobile and Vodafone as well as industry watchdogs, ICSTIS and Oftel.
It is hoped that the code, which allows customers to initiate immediate contact with a specific promotion, will facilitate the opening up of the growing mobile phone market. Initially two short code ranges will be made available for common use, allowing advertisers to utilise special five digit codes.
Leading mobile phone operators will each manage specific ranges of the code and advertisers will have to apply to the operators in order to receive a short code. The structure of the codes will also convey information to the consumer about the price and nature of the service in a similar way to conventional premium rate numbers.
