US sends a trillion text messages in 2008

Text messaging in the US nearly tripled from 2007 to the following year, with the total number of sent messages exceeding one trillion.

All told, the total volume of texting averages 3.5 billion per day. Based on the survey’s findings of 270 million wireless users, that’s 13 messages per person, per day.

The results were boasted during this year’s Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association trade show in Las Vegas. Results are drawn from a semi-annual survey by CTIA that reaches companies serving over 96 percent of the country’s wireless customers. Compared to 2008’s trillion text messages, US customers sent 363 billion messages in 2007.

It’s not surprising, then, that cell phone service providers have boosted the cost of texting in recent years. The price per message has jumped by 100 percent, from 10 cents in 2005 to 20 cents in 2008 for all major carriers. That led to some lawmakers asking about the cost of providing the service, according to a New York Times article from December. Based on the responses, it seems that texting services cost less for the companies now than they did a few years ago. In general, the text files are quite small to begin with.

Maybe the idea of uniformly higher texting prices in response to high demand would anger me more if I was attached to the service. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t particularly like texting with the exception of certain circumstances (like trying to relay the location of the crowded bar you’re at). A phone call is less time-consuming if back-and-forth is involved. No sweat off my back if other people don’t mind paying extra.