The Mobile Data Association (MDA)  has released its first quarterly report of the year. The report reveals that 17.6 million mobile phone users accessed the Internet on their phone in December 2007, and that 5,000 text messages are sent every second in the UK.
A total of 56.9 billion texts were sent in the UK in 2007, 40% more than the previous year. 290 million of these were sent on New Years Eve. There were 448.9 million MMS messages sent in the UK in 2007. 1.9 million of these were sent on new Years Eve. MMS figures for December 2007 (58 million), were 55% up on the 32 million sent in December 2006.
The report contains some very compelling indications that mobile usage is evolving, says MDA Chairman, Mike Short. While the strong upward curve of SMS volumes continues, perhaps a more telling headline number is the penetration of mobile Internet usage and multi-media messaging (MMS). We are really starting to see a much greater variety of mobile data volumes. New devices, competitive data tariffs and wider content choice mean it has never been easier for users to send an email, take a picture or access Internet content. This is a very important set of indicators.