The total number of text messages sent in the UK reached an all
time high in January of 1.4 billion, 100 million more messages than
were sent in December 2001. The figures, from the Mobile Data
Association (MDA), include only chargeable person-to-person text
messages sent across the UK’s four GSM network operators.
The January figures represent nearly 300 million more messages
than the entire total for 1999 and an increase of almost five times
on December figures that year. During December 2000, 756 million
texts were sent throughout the UK.
The MDA reports that Britons now send more than 42 million texts
each day, compared to 24 million this time last year and only 8.7
million in 1999. The annual total of messages sent in 2001 was 12.2
billion messages, almost twice the previous year’s total.
