Text messages hit all time high

The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness has proved to be a winner when it comes to text messaging. October 2004 has seen the highest ever total of text messages, recording an all time high of 2.3 billion, according to figures released today by the Mobile Data Association (MDA). Person-to-person texts sent across the UK GSM network operators last month show an increase of 27% on the total sent during the same period in 2003, with 74 million messages being sent per day and more than 41 messages for every customer in the UK.

Today's figure announcement by the MDA comes on the same day that the Rt. Hon Tony Blair MP becomes the first UK Prime Minister to use text message technology to talk directly to the people. Members of the public have been able to submit questions in advance by text message or ask the Prime Minister a question in real time in a mobile phone chatroom, transmitted live from No 10 Downing Street.

Over the last five years text.it (www.text.it) has witnessed text messaging grow from a popular craze to becoming an essential communication tool. The full statistics of this text message explosion and monthly figure releases can be found at: www.text.it/mediacentre/default.asp?intPageID=96.

Text.it carries out text message counts on specific days throughout the year. Diary dates incorporating the most recent figures are listed on the web site at www.text.it/mediacentre/default.asp?intPageID=478.