New figures released by the International Telecommunications Union(ITU) estimates that 6.1 trillion text messages will be sent this year – 200,000 SMS every second – triple the number sent in 2007 (1.8 trillion).
While there are already over 5 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, ITU predicts that there will be some 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions by the end of the year including 940 million for high-speed connections.
The Geneva-based agency says that as many as 143 countries are offering IMT2000/3G services commercially, up from 95 countries in 2007.
The figures released by ITU also forecast that two billion people worldwide will have access to the Internet by the end of the year.
