151 billion SMSs exchanged in 2009: PTA report

STAFF REPORT ISLAMABAD: A total of 151.6385 billion text messages were exchanged by Pakistani cellular subscribers in fiscal year 2009-10, generating a Rs 40.76 billion revenue, reveals a report published by PTA on SMS traffic trends in local and global markets.

According to the report, this figure translates into 1532 SMS per subscriber in a year or 128 SMS per subscriber in one month. Average price of one SMS is said to be at 27 paisas.

“Four billion mobile subscribers use SMS service around the world, who sent five trillion messages in 2009 i.e. approximately 105 sms per person per month,” the report reveals.

By 2013 the volume of messages will double to 10 trillion, according to Portio Research. That is, the SMS traffic will grow double in coming four years. The forward prediction can be seen in following figure:

In 2009, the SMS revenue accounted for 12 per cent of China’s largest mobile operator’s total revenue. The Philippines and the United States combined accounted for 35% of all SMS sent in 2009.

Zong and Mobilink have more outgoing traffic than the incoming traffic. Ufone has the highest SMS traffic on the network. The out and incoming traffic of Mobilink is almost balanced in each month respectively. Telenor has quite high incoming than its outgoing.

http://www.technologytimes.pk/mag/2011/jan11/issue04/151_billion_sms_exchanged_in.php