Mobile users from across the US have recently broken three records when it comes to text messaging. According to a report released by VeriSign, the Mountain View-based communications and Internet company, from the beginning of 2008 to June 30, no less than 95.4 billion SMS messages have been sent among US carriers. Moreover, in the same period, a single-day record (with 648 million messages per day), and a single-hour one (with 42 million messages per hour) were also set.

 

95.4 billion messages sent in the first half of 2008 means that an average of 15.9 billion messages per month and around 530 million messages per day were sent. If we're to think that the US has an estimated number of 255 million mobile users, it results that every one of them has sent an average of two text messages per day – which, in the end, doesn't seem impressive at all. However, the new numbers are clearly higher than the ones of 2007, and if the growth continues, the year could end with more than 200 billion inter-carrier messages sent in the US.

 

"As mobile messaging usage continues to grow at a rapid pace, consumers and operators are demanding secure and reliable delivery of their messages. VeriSign continues to raise the bar by providing unparalleled service and delivery at scale with 99.999-plus percent availability in the past 18 months and 100 percent availability for the last nine months. This is critical, because as texting traffic will only continue to grow, service providers and end users will need a network that they can count on," stated Charles Landry, vice president and general manager, Products and Innovation, VeriSign Messaging and Mobile Media.

 

The blooming of text messaging across the US is encouraged by the release of more and more handsets that feature a full QWERTY keyboard (Samsung Messager and Verizon Blitz being among the latest affordable examples).