South Africans are expected to let their fingers do the talking on their cellphones as they send festive season greetings to family and friends.
Arthur Goldstuck, executive director of IT research group World Wide Worx, says all South Africa’s cellphone operators will set SMS records this festive season.
One of the reasons for an expected record increase in SMS traffic this year is that more South Africans have cellphones and many are more confident on how to send massages, says Goldstuck.
He suspects, however, that SMSs will in future make way for instant messaging services (IM).
Instant messaging services such as MXit make it possible to send more data at a fraction of the cost of an SMS.
Goldstuck says the number of SMSs being sent during the festive season is about the same as the SMSs sent in all the other months put together.
Last December MTN carried a total of 1.4 billion calls across its network. During the Christmas and New Year’s weekends alone its network had sent 120 million SMSs.
MTN also, for the whole of December transferred 2.7 million MMSs (multimedia messages).
MTN says it expects more than 160 million SMSs to move through its network over this year’s Christmas and New Year’s weekends.
MTN, Africa’s biggest network operator, says it is not expecting any technical glitches in this period.
Cell C says in the three days from December 30 to January 1 last year over 16 million SMSs were sent over its South African network. The network says it has already upgraded its technology for text messaging to ensure it’s ready for the festive season.
According to Goldstuck most SMSs get send on New Year’s day, followed by the period just before Christmas. The other big SMS day of the year is Valentine’s Day.
According to Cell C, SMS traffic normally takes off considerably after 20:00 and peak at midnight on New Year’s Eve. It increases again after 06:00 on New Year’s day.
MTN cautioned cellphone users not to wait till peak time to send SMSs. “People must spread their messages by starting early and not wait till midnight or after 08:00.”
South Africa’s biggest cellphone operator, Vodacom, has a company policy not to divulge information on SMSs and phone calls.
Source- fin24 Wireless Mobile Telecom
