89m texts sent in September

According to recent research, 89 million texts were sent on average every day in September in the UK. Currently over 70% of mobile users send text messages. Two contributors to these statistics are Natalie Hanson and Hayley Argent, of St Chad's.

The girls use their mobile phones differently. Natalie, for instance, uses her mobile around four times a week, with her credit lasting about a month, while Hayley uses her mobile all day, every day. Her credit lasts about a week. However, they both use their mobiles for the same things - texting, phoning friends and family, and playing games.

The use of mobile phones are being monitored by The Mobile Data Association (MDA), who owns and operates the website: www.text.it the official website dedicated to texting in the UK.

Mum pays for mobile

They also carried out the recent research about how many texts were sent in September. The site includes information on, for example: business texting, texting tips, the latest facts and figures. According to text.it, text messaging accounts for 20% of operator revenues. Hayley and Natalie use Orange and O2, respectively.

"My mum pays for my mobile phone," says Hayley, whereas, Natalie pays for hers herself. When asked if they ever show off their mobile phones, their answers vary yet again. Natalie says she doesn't, but Hayley admits to showing off her silver Motorola.

Some facts from www.text.it:
• The first text message was sent in 1992


• On New Year's Day 2005, the highest daily total ever recorded by the Mobile Data Association was reached, when 133 million messages were sent


• The Mobile Data Association predicts that 30 billion text messages will be sent during 2005


• GCSE results - 99.5 million text messages were sent throughout the UK on 25th August 2005


• A-Level results - 99 million text messages were sent throughout the UK on 18th August 2005


• 95% of all text messages are delivered within 10 seconds.

by Sarah Steele
article published 22/11/05