Britons Addicted To Text Messaging

November 5, 2007 11:35 a.m. EST

London, United Kingdom (AHN) - Britons now send more than one billion text messages per week, according to latest industry figures published Monday.

In September, 4,825 billion texts were sent, a 25 percent increase over the same month in 2006, according to figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA), a global non-profit group.

The weekly figure is the same as the total number of text messages sent during the whole of 1999 and calculates to 4,000 text messages per second, or 70 per person per month.

Following the sharp increase in September, MDA has revised its forecast for the total number of texts sent in 2007 from 48 billion to 52 billion.

Mike Short, head of the MDA, said: "It has exceeded our forecasts quite significantly", reports BBC News.

He added that "it's convenient, comprehensive, it's on every handset and network and it is cost effective" resulting in the continuous growth.

Short also attributes part of the growth to the increasing use of text messages by businesses.

"It's a lot more convenient for a business now to notify lots of their employees about an urgent message using a text message."

Companies are also using the medium to manage customer relations to communicate information such deliveries, house calls and appointments.

Short added that Britain is now among the top six countries in the world for text messaging with text volumes not showing any "real signs of abating".

The boom has been further fueled by new deals offered by mobile phone companies who have made sending text messages economical.

Britons sent 42 billion texts in 2006.