The Mobile Data Association shows that Britain’s love affair with text messages is still going strong; nearly 400 million text messages were sent on the 31st of December 2008, which is a 37 percent growth year-on-year.

British people — Poms (and no one know the derivation of the name) if you are an Australian — sent nearly 79 billion texts last year, that’s 216 million a day (nearly 3,500 per second), which is a 38.6 percent increase over 2007 and compares well with the 41.8 billion texts sent in 2006.

Commenting on the figures, MDA Chairman Steve Reynolds said, “It’s fascinating to see the evolution of mobile technology, most compelling is the way users define its use and application.” He did not mention the profitability attached.

In related news, Verisign announced that it delivered more than 224 billion texts in 2008, a 134 percent increase over 2007.

A neat try by both the Poms (British people if you live in Australia and, no, the derivation is unclear) and the users in the USA but it’s nothing to Deepak Sharma, an Indian who is plainly a few chappatis short of a full meal. He sent 182,689 SMS messages in one month. The picture is, we think, of his mum checking in to see he is going fine.

Engadget reports that  Deepak Sharma went on record with the Guinness Book for having sent the most SMS messages in a single month. That’s about 6,100 messages a day, 253 an hour, 4.2 a minute, or a new one every 14 seconds or so.

How he ate or slept is not mentioned.

His bill was 1,411 page long but he has an unlimited texting plan.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 at 7:22 am under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Gareth Powell.
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