The UK text messaging total broke through the 4 billion barrier for the first time during December 2006, according to figures released today by the Mobile Data Association (MDA). Decembers total of 4.3 billion takes the overall figure for 2006 to 41.8 billion, surpassing the MDAs prediction of 40 billion, and giving a daily average for the year of 114 million. The previous highest monthly total was 3.8 billion, recorded in October 2006.
Person-to-person texts sent across the UK GSM network operators throughout the last month of the year show a growth of 38% on the December 2005 figure of 3.1 billion, and represent an average of 138 million messages per day. On Christmas Day, this leapt to 205 million texts, an average of 8 million per hour, with the figure for New Years Day 2007 even higher, reaching a record breaking 214 million, the highest daily total ever recorded by the MDA.
When compared to the mere 42 million messages sent per day five years ago throughout December 2001, its clear just how far the nation has come in embracing text messaging technology. The MDA is forecasting that figures will continue to rise this year to deliver an annual total of 45 billion text messages for 2007, with an average of 3.75 billion messages being sent per month and 123 million messages per day.
You can get more detailed text messaging stats here.