Texts sent in the UK rises to 1.2bn a week

It said 4.8 billion texts were sent in September. The figure represents growth in SMS traffic of 25 per cent compared with 2006.

The MDA has since hiked its forecast for the year from 48 billion to 52 billion text messages.

MDA chairman Mike Short said: “The UK sits in the top six of the global league of countries sending texts. As the trend towards flat-rate data tariffs increases, this will act as a catalyst for consumer’s passion for all things mobile.”

The UK figures for September break down to an average of 70 text messages per person, per month.

Ovum principal analyst John Delaney said: “Even if SMS traffic keeps growing at current rates, the networks can’t rely on SMS revenues growing at the same pace. They need to plan an encore: a new type of service that can have the same kind of mass-market appeal as SMS, and that can inject new growth into mobile messaging revenues.”