Huge Global Growth in SMS Continues Over the New Year Period

SMS Popularity Shows no Sign of Slowing as Billions do not Ring in the New
Year - but Text Instead

READING, England, January 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Acision, the messaging and
charging company of choice for over 300 network operators and service
providers worldwide, today announced that according to their figures, global
SMS traffic over the 2007/2008 New Year period increased by 30 per cent
compared to the same period last year. Around the world, phone users sent a
staggering 43 billion text messages to wish their loved ones a happy New Year
- of which more than 23 billion were successfully processed through Acision's
systems.
These statistics clearly illustrate the increasing role in the
communication habits of billions of people that SMS continues to play.
Growth was strong in both mature and emerging markets - in Portugal, SMS
traffic almost tripled across the festive period compared to last year and
Dutch operator KPN saw its messaging traffic double on New Years Eve. However
the most astounding growth figures came from developing markets, where
India's 220 million mobile subscribers sent over a billion text messages - a
300 per cent increase to their day to day traffic levels. The Philippines
retained its title as the text messaging capital of the world - sending a
remarkable 1.39 billion text messages from a subscriber base of just 50
million.
Steven van Zanen, Head of Messaging Futures, Acision said: "Messaging
represents a significant slice of mobile operator revenues, and events like
New Years Eve demonstrate how critical it is for operators to ensure a
reliable and speedy service. One of our operator customers' infrastructure
operated under peaks of 19,000 messages sent per second without congestion or
delay. The New Year figures are eagerly anticipated each year and this year's
record traffic levels again do not disappoint."
Acision is the partner of choice in high volume mobile data services for
the world's leading network operators and service providers, with over 50% of
global messaging traffic generated through the company's platforms.
Notes to Editors
About Acision
Acision is the messaging and charging company of choice for more than 300
network operators and service providers, supporting over one and a half
billion customers worldwide. With over 50% of global text and multimedia
messaging traffic generated through its platforms, Acision's mobile data
services expertise includes text messaging, multimedia messaging, IP
messaging, mobile internet, mobile advertising, IP voicemail and IP
videomail. Acision's payment systems have processed more than US $100
billion, providing sophisticated real-time charging and removing the
boundaries between prepaid and postpaid subscriptions. Helping operators to
grow their mobile data revenues for over 43 years, Acision has a detailed
understanding of what it takes to bring innovative services to full mass
market adoption.
Privately owned by an equity consortium led by Atlantic Bridge Ventures
and Access Industries, Acision is a half billion dollar company, working with
customers in 135 countries across six continents. More information is
available at http://www.acision.com
SOURCE Acision

Press contacts: Jennifer Ballard, Marketing Executive, Acision, Tel:
+44(0)118-965-9407, Email: jennifer.ballard@acision.com; Ruth Walters /
Bettina Winters, Hotwire PR, acision@hotwirepr.com, +44(0)207-608-2500