Worldwide use[edit]
Europe[edit]
Europe follows next behind Asia in terms of the popularity of the use of SMS. In 2003, an average of 16 billion messages were sent each month. Users in Spain sent a little more than fifty messages per month on average in 2003. In Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom, the figure was around 35–40 SMS messages per month. In each of these countries, the cost of sending an SMS message varies from €0.04–0.23, depending on the payment plan (with many contractual plans including all or a number of texts for free). In the United Kingdom, text messages are charged between £0.05–0.12. Curiously, France has not taken to SMS in the same way, sending just under 20 messages on average per user per month. France has the same GSM technology as other European countries, so the uptake is not hampered by technical restrictions.
In the Republic of Ireland, a total of 1.5 billion messages are sent every quarter, on average 114 messages per person per month.[38] In the United Kingdom over 1 billion text messages are sent every week.[39]
The Eurovision Song Contest organized the first pan-European SMS voting in 2002, as a part of the voting system (there was also a voting over traditional phone lines). In 2005, the Eurovision Song Contest organized the biggest televoting ever (with SMS and phone voting).
During roaming, that is, when a user connects to another network in different country from his own, the prices may be higher, but in July 2009, EU legislation went into effect limiting this price to €0.11.[40]
Finland[edit]
 | This section does not cite any sources. (July 2008) |
In addition to SMS voting, a different phenomenon has risen in more mobile-phone-saturated countries. In Finland, some TV channels began "SMS chat", which involved sending short messages to a phone number, and the messages would be shown on TV a while later. Chats are always moderated, which prevents sending harmful material to the channel. The craze soon became popular and evolved into games, at first slow-paced quiz and strategy games. After a while, faster-paced games were designed for television and SMS control. Games tend to involve registering one's nickname and, after that, sending short messages for controlling a character on screen. Messages usually cost 0.05 to 0.86 Euro apiece, and games can require the player to send dozens of messages. In December 2003, a Finnish TV channel, MTV3, put a Santa Claus character on air reading aloud messages sent in by viewers. On 12 March 2004, the first entirely "interactive" TV channel, VIISI, began operation in Finland. That did not last long, as SBS Finland Oy took over the channel and turned it into a music channel named The Voice in November 2004.
In 2006, the Prime Minister of Finland, Matti Vanhanen, made front-page news when he allegedly broke up with his girlfriend with a text message.
In 2007, the first book written solely in text messages, Viimeiset viestit (Last Messages), was released by Finnish author Hannu Luntiala. It is about a business executive who travels throughout Europe and India.
Mobile-service providers in Finland offer contracts in which one can send 1000 text messages a month for the price of €10.
United States[edit]
In the United States, text messaging is very popular; as reported by CTIA in December 2009, the 286 million US subscribers sent 152.7 billion text messages per month, for an average of 534 messages per subscriber per month.[41] The Pew Research Center found in May 2010 that 72% of U.S. adult cellphone users send and receive text messages.[42]
In the U.S., SMS is often charged both at the sender and at the destination, but, unlike phone calls, it cannot be rejected or dismissed. The reasons for lower uptake than other countries are varied—many users have unlimited "mobile-to-mobile" minutes, high monthly minute allotments, or unlimited service. Moreover, push to talk services offer the instant connectivity of SMS and are typically unlimited. Furthermore, the integration between competing providers and technologies necessary for cross-network text messaging has only been available recently. Some providers originally charged extra to enable use of text, further reducing its usefulness and appeal. In the third quarter of 2006, at least 12 billion text messages crossed AT&T's network, up almost 15 percent from the preceding quarter.
In the United States, while texting is widely popular among the ages of 13–22 years old, it is increasing among adults and business users as well. The age that a child receives his/her first cell phone has also decreased, making text messaging a very popular way of communication for all ages. The number of texts being sent in the United States has gone up over the years as the price has gone down to an average of $0.10 per text sent and received.
In order to convince more customers to include text messaging plans, some major cellphone providers have recently increased the price to send and receive text messages from $.15 to $.20 per message.[43][44] This is over $1,300 per megabyte.[45] Many providers offer unlimited plans, which can result in a lower rate per text given sufficient volume.
Japan[edit]
Japan was among the first countries to adopt short messages widely, with pioneering non-GSM services including J-Phone's SkyMail and NTT Docomo's Short Mail. Japanese adolescents first began text messaging, because it was a cheaper form of communication than the other available forms. Thus, Japanese theorists created the selective interpersonal relationship theory, claiming that mobile phones can change social networks among young people (classified as 13- to 30-year-olds). They theorized this age group had extensive but low-quality relationships with friends, and mobile-phone usage may facilitate improvement in the quality of their relationships. They concluded this age group prefers "selective interpersonal relationships in which they maintain particular, partial, but rich relations, depending on the situation."[46][47] The same studies showed participants rated friendships in which they communicated face-to-face and through text messaging as being more intimate than those in which they communicated solely face-to-face. This indicates participants make new relationships with face-to-face communication at an early stage, but use text messaging to increase their contact later on. It is also interesting to note that as the relationships between participants grew more intimate, the frequency of text messaging also increased.
However, short messaging has been largely rendered obsolete by the prevalence of mobile Internet e-mail, which can be sent to and received from any e-mail address, mobile or otherwise. That said, while usually presented to the user simply as a uniform "mail" service (and most users are unaware of the distinction), the operators may still internally transmit the content as short messages, especially if the destination is on the same network.
China[edit]
Text messaging is popular and cheap in China. About 700 billion messages were sent in 2007. Text message spam is also a problem in China. In 2007, 353.8 billion spam messages were sent, up 93% from the previous year. It is about 12.44 messages per week per person.
It is routine that the People's Republic of China government monitor text messages across the country for illegal content.[48]
Among Chinese migrant workers with little formal education, it is common to refer to SMS manuals when text messaging. These manuals are published as cheap, handy, smaller-than-pocket-size booklets that offer diverse linguistic phrases to utilize as messages.[49]
Philippines[edit]
In 1995, Short Message Service was introduced as a promotional gimmick but soon became very popular. In 1998, Philippine mobile-service providers launched SMS as part of their services, with initial television marketing campaigns targeting hearing-impaired users. The service was initially free with subscriptions, but Filipinos quickly exploited the feature to communicate for free instead of using voice calls, which they would be charged for. After Telcos caught on to this, they soon started charging for SMS. The current rate across networks is 1 peso per SMS (about US$0.023). Though users were now charged for SMS, it remained very cheap, about one-tenth of the price of a voice call. This low price led to about five million Filipinos owning a cell phone by 2001.[50]
Because of the highly social nature of Philippine culture and the affordability of SMS compared to voice calls, SMS usage shot up, and texting quickly became a popular tool for Filipinos to keep in touch with their friends and loved ones. Filipinos used texting not only for social but also for political purposes, as it allowed the Filipinos to express their opinions on current events and political issues.[51] As a result, it became a powerful tool for Filipinos in promoting or denouncing certain issues and was a key factor during the 2001 EDSA II revolution, which overthrew then-President Joseph Estrada, who was eventually found guilty of corruption.
According to 2009 stats, there are about 72 million mobile-service subscriptions (roughly 80% of the Filipino population), with around 1.39 billion SMS messages being sent in the Philippines daily.[52][53] Because of the large amount of text messages being sent by Filipinos, the Philippines became known as the "text capital of the world" during the late 1990s until the early 2000s.
New Zealand[edit]
There are three mobile network companies in New Zealand.
Spark NZ, (formally Telecom NZ), was the first telecommunication company in New Zealand. In 2011, Spark was broken into two companies, with Chorus Ltd taking the landline infrastructure and Spark NZ providing services including over their mobile network.
Vodafone NZ acquired mobile network provider Bellsouth New Zealand in 1998 and has 2.32 million customers as at July 2013[54][55] Vodafone launched the first Text messaging service in 1999[56] and has introduced innovative TXT services like Safe TXT and CallMe[57]
2degrees Mobile Ltd launched in August 2009.
In 2005, around 85% of the adult population had a mobile phone.[58] In general, texting is more popular than making phone calls, as it is viewed as less intrusive and therefore more polite.
Spark NZ, (formally Telecom NZ), was the first telecommunication company in New Zealand. In 2011, Spark was broken into two companies, with Chorus Ltd taking the landline infrastructure and Spark NZ providing services including over their mobile network.
Vodafone NZ acquired mobile network provider Bellsouth New Zealand in 1998 and has 2.32 million customers as at July 2013[54][55] Vodafone launched the first Text messaging service in 1999[56] and has introduced innovative TXT services like Safe TXT and CallMe[57]
2degrees Mobile Ltd launched in August 2009.
In 2005, around 85% of the adult population had a mobile phone.[58] In general, texting is more popular than making phone calls, as it is viewed as less intrusive and therefore more polite.
Africa[edit]
Text messaging will become a key revenue driver for mobile network operators in Africa over the next couple of years.[59] Today, text messaging is already slowly gaining influence in the African market. One such person used text messaging to spread the word about HIV and AIDS.[60] Also, in September 2009, a multi-country campaign in Africa used text messaging to expose stock-outs of essential medicines at public health facilities and put pressure on governments to address the issue.[61]
Patrick Abboud
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