14 DAY TRIAL // It is very common for people all around the world to SMS their family or friends during New Year's Eve celebrations, this being also one of the basic uses of mobile phones.
Thus, it comes as no surprise that - while the number of sold mobile phones increases - the number of SMS messages sent on such occasions will grow as well. The most significant increase in SMS volume will occur in countries with developing mobile phone networks, such as Eastern Europe, North Africa and some parts of Asia.
Leading provider of mobile messaging infrastructure and applications, Airwide Solutions is expecting an all-time peak in SMS volumes during the New Year's Eve celebrations. In the U.K the SMS volumes are expected to exceed 200 million this year, compared to 165 million last year.
Dennis Magaya, Executive Head: Customer Services & Applications at South African operator Cell C, says: "We are expecting record high message peaks this year as increasing numbers of people send greetings by SMS when they are out celebrating. We have made the appropriate investments in our messaging infrastructure accordingly and are confident that we will be able to handle the anticipated peak in traffic and continue to deliver a reliable service to our subscribers during the festive season."
"Dramatic peaks in messaging traffic are becoming more frequent and more pronounced, not only due to the continued increase in popularity of SMS and other messaging types, but also because of increases in A2P and P2A traffic", says Jay Seaton, CMO of Airwide Solutions. "While increased traffic provides great revenue potential for operators, it also presents the challenges of ensuring that the underlying infrastructure does not become congested while subscribers send these time-sensitive messages, and that the operators' networks and subscribers are protected from mobile fraud, spam and other security threats."
The largest peak in SMS volumes is expected to occur in the Philipines, where over 400 million messages are sent on a typical day.