5 November 2007
Britons are keeping in touch via text message more than ever before, a report from the Mobile Data Association (MDA) has shown.
A weekly total exceeding one billion messages was measured by the MDA - 25% higher than just one year ago and equating to 4,000 messages being sent each second.
Moreover, use of the service - which only became commercially available twelve years ago - has grown so quickly that the weekly figure currently exceeds the total number of texts sent during the whole of 1999.
MDA head Mike Short commented that the total "has exceeded our forecasts quite significantly" and was due to the service being "convenient", "comprehensive", "on every handset and network" and "cost effective".
Mr Short added that the uptake of the service in the corporate world also drove the total up.
"It's a lot more convenient for a business now to notify lots of their employees about an urgent message using a text message," he said.
The statistics from the MDA show that, worldwide, the UK is now one of the top six countries in quantities of text messages sent.
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
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