Record Sms Levels in the Uk

England's World Cup Campaign encouraged fans to notch up record figures for text messaging last month. Figures released by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) show that 112 million SMS's were sent on average per day throughout June, with the total monthly figure topping 3.37 billion. Person-to-person texts sent across the UK GSM network operators last month show an increase of almost 30% on the total sent during the same period in 2005. In the first six months of 2006 over 18 billion person-to-person text messages were sent in the UK, well on the way to the MDA's annual forecast of 36.5 billion.

World Cup count days

The MDA undertook text messaging counts on England's World Cup match days throughout June /July and announced today that 140 million messages were sent on 15th June and 1st July, when England played Trinidad & Tobago and Portugal. This was equivalent to an average of 6 million messages sent per hour, and is second only to the current daily record of 165 million messages sent on New Year's Day this year.

Holiday Texting

With the holiday season now upon us UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has updated its guide for consumers to cut costs using their mobile phones abroad. The Ofcom advice is intended to increase consumer awareness of the costs involved in making and receiving calls when using a mobile phone abroad, and illustrates typical tariffs charged by the five mobile network operators in the UK, showing the prices they are likely to pay when making and receiving calls or text messages while overseas.

Ofcom suggests travellers consider switching from a pre-pay to a post-pay contract tariff as the monthly line rental cost may be offset by cheaper roaming rates. It also recommends using text messages instead of making voice calls."

Posted to the site on 26th July 2006