Over 8.7 and 9.9 million mobile SMS were sent by mobile service users in Hong Kong on the recent Christmas and New Year days, representing an increase of nearly 111% and 141% against the average daily number of SMS sent, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) said.
'It is the good time to express one's greetings to family and friends during the festive season. In order to allow the public to have a clearer picture of the trend of using mobile SMS, OFTA has made its first attempt this year to release the figures of SMS sent and received on specific dates,' OFTA said in a statement.
Other than the statistics for Christmas and New Year Days, OFTA is also planning to release the figures of SMS sent and received on the forthcoming Chinese New Year Day and Valentine's Day.
'We wish to give special thanks to the six mobile network operators for their co-operation and support in providing us with the data for Christmas and New Year Days in a timely manner,' the statement said. The monthly aggregate figures have already been posted on OFTA's Web site and updated regularly for public information.
For incoming SMS, the total number recorded on the Christmas and New Year days were 11,238,000 and 12,163,000 respectively.
'The daily average of outgoing mobile messages from October 2004 to September 2005 was 4,125,000, while the daily average of mobile messages received was 7,025,000 during the same period,' OFTA said.