Text Messaging For August Soars To Record Levels

The total number of text messages sent in the UK for August soared to over 3.6 billion, which is the highest monthly total ever recorded, according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

This latest data indicates an increase of 100 million messages on the previous highest total recorded in July. Contributing to the record total were the text counts taken on the days GCSE and A-Level results were released. 137 million messages were sent on 17 August (A-level) and 136 million messages for 24 August (GSCE).

The first time over one billion texts were sent in one month was August 2001, with a total of 1.05 billion, or around 35 million messages per day on average. The MDA’s announcement five years ago reported that figures had almost doubled from the previous year, and with the total for 2006 at 2.5 billion higher, it proves that text messaging is now firmly embedded in British culture.

Since then, year on year comparisons for the month of August show an unprecedented growth of this form of communication; 1.05 billion messages a month in August 2001, 1.4 billion for August 2002, 1.7 billion during August 2003, 2.1 billion a month in August 2004 and 2.7 billion for August last year.

In August 1998, the year that the MDA began collating and issuing monthly UK SMS statistics, 11.1 million messages were sent, 105 million less than the August 2006 daily average figure of 117 million.

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