4 billion texts a month in the UK

Link: Text.it | The UK’s definitive text related information source.

Gorge yourself on these rather interesting stas.

December’s remarkable total of 4.3 billion takes the overall figure for 2006 to 41.8 billion, surpassing the MDA’s prediction of 40 billion* and giving a daily average for the year of 114 million.

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 Year’s 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, it becomes clear just how far the nation has come in embracing text messaging technology which has emerged from a popular craze to becoming an essential communication tool, inclusive to all age groups. The MDA has forecast 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.

114 million a day? You know what I’d really like to know: How many of those texts are paid at the standard rate and how many of them are ‘inclusive’ or ‘unlimited’.

Bring on 45 billion in 2007…