Record text messages over festive period

CYPRIOTS sent double the amount of text messages during New Year’s eve and day than on any other day of the year.

SMS texting is taking over as the new way of wishing loved ones a happy new year, if network figures are taken into account.

More than nine million text messages were sent via Cytamobile Vodafone and MTN on New Year’s day alone, which was less than those sent on Christmas day but more than the amount sent last New Year.

Specifically, from 8 pm on New Year’s eve until midday Wednesday, 12.4 million SMS messages were sent via the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA), compared to last year’s 10.6 millions texts.
In the first hour of 2008, Cypriots sent 1.34 million text messages, which breaks down to 371 messages per second.

By 3am on January 1, 2008, Cypriots had sent 2.3 million SMS messages, which accounted for 30 per cent of all messages sent on New Year’s Day.

On a typical day, around three million text messages are exchanged between Cytamobile phone users.
The huge influx of messages provoked an overload at the CyTA’s Small Messages Centre from 11.30pm on Monday until 2.30am on New Year’s day, resulting in a 17.6 minute delay in sending and receiving messages.

From 8pm on Christmas Eve until noon the following day, 11.3 million texts were sent.

MTN users sent 2.7 million messages on New Year’s eve and day, compared to last year’s 1.1 million.

There was also a 1.1 million increase in texts sent over Christmas. MTN’s average transmission of text messages reaches around 1.2 million a day.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.