2 May 2004

UK text messaging figures for March 2004 reached 2.1 billion, an increase of nearly 80 million on February's total according to figures released by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

Person-to-person texts sent across the UK GSM network operators last month show an increase of almost 25% on the total sent during the same period in 2003.

March's figure shows a daily average of 69 million compared to 56 million in March 2003 and 43 million in March 2002.

As March's figure continues to show, texting is being used by more of the population for an increasing number of reasons. Earlier this month the MDA launched a texting facility for SAGA radio, the independent radio station targeting the 50+ age group.

Within minutes of activating the service SAGA Radio were inundated with texts from their listeners responding to requests from the presenters.

On launching the text messaging service Mike Short, Chairman of the MDA commented: "The launch of text messaging at SAGA Radio shows how versatile text messaging is, which makes it an attractive form of communication for everyone."