The sheer popularity of SMS shows no sign of slowing as billions do not ring in the New Year but text in the New Year instead. Acision, which monitors SMS trends and which has been chosen as messaging and charging company of choice for over 300 network operators and service providers worldwide, has announced figures for global SMS traffic over the 2007-2008 New Year period which are 30% higher when compared to the same period last year.
Around the world, phone users sent a staggering 43 billion text messages to wish their loved ones a happy New Year – Acision claims a share of more than 23 billion of the messages. These statistics quite clearly illustrate the increasing role that SMS continues to play in the communication habits of billions of people.
Growth was strong in both mature and emerging markets but the most astounding growth figures came from developing markets, where
Steven van Zanen, Head of Messaging Futures at Acision, was strident in his comments: “Messaging represents a significant slice of mobile operator revenues, and events like New Years Eve demonstrate how critical it is for operators to ensure a reliable and speedy service. The infrastructure of one of our operator-customers operated under peaks of 19,000 messages sent per second without congestion or delay. The New Year figures are eagerly anticipated each year and this year's record traffic levels again do not disappoint.”
* Acision's (formerly Logica CGM) payment systems have processed more than US$100 billion, providing sophisticated real-time charging and removing the boundaries between prepaid and post-paid subscriptions. Privately owned by an equity consortium led by Atlantic Bridge Ventures and Access Industries, Acision is a half-billion-dollar company, working in 135 countries.More info: