Free Text Messaging Today in the USA

The US network, Cingular Wireless is stepping up the campaign to encourage Americans to use text messaging, by offering free messaging all day today (a national holiday in the country) to its subscribers. As part of this daylong promotion, Cingular customers can also take the opportunity to personalize their mobile phones with a free patriotic ringtone or graphic.

"More and more Americans have taken to text messaging than ever before," says Andrew Wilson, vice president consumer marketing, Cingular Wireless. "The service is not only hot with teens. We've seen increased use in the past 18 months with adults using text messaging to communicate with colleagues and family members when they don't have access to email or it's not convenient to make a phone call."

Cingular's SMS network is handling millions of messages per week and has experienced an increase of more than 160% in the number of messages sent between Cingular customers and customers on other wireless networks from April to May of 2002.

The USA is still lagging the rest of the world in the popularity of text messaging. In the UK, more messages are sent in just two hours than in a whole month in the USA. Much of the problem had been the lack of interconnection between the networks, although that has now been resolved for most of them. All that now remains is to market the service to the customers.'"

Posted to the site on 4th July 2002