Much to say: The Text Republic of Pakistan

Country ranked fourth in SMS usage in the world.

KARACHI: Pakistan has a lot to say. The country moved up to fourth position in the world in the number of texts sent in 2009, says a report issued by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

According to the report on Short Messaging Service (SMS) Traffic in Pakistan and Global Trends, 151.64 billion text messages were exchanged during 2009, which is 1,532 texts per subscriber. Five trillion messages sent were in 2009 globally and only mobile phone users in the Philippines, the US and the UK had sent more texts than Pakistani users.

Moreover, the PTA estimates that SMS is used by four billion mobile users across the world who sent five trillion messages in 2009, which is approximately 105 SMSs per person per month. But in Pakistan alone, 128 SMSs were exchanged per person per month.

The report, quoting Portia research, says that the volume of messages will double to 10 trillion by 2013.

The volume of texts sent shows why SMS is among the strongest data revenue streams for mobile service operators both internationally and in Pakistan. The sheer volume of text messages sent by Pakistanis in 2009 earned the country’s mobile industry around Rs41 billion and Rs236.1 billion as a whole.

In 2008, Pakistan had the largest text messaging growth in Asia-Pacific. According to the PTA, much of the consistent growth of SMS is due to its ever-widening adoption beyond peer-to-peer messaging, such as banking, social networking, enterprise applications, advertising and machine-to-machine communication.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2011.