Pakistani mobile phone users exchanged staggering 315.7 billion text messages during July 2012 to June 2013 or 865 million SMS messages a day, said a report prepared by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.
Telecom sector has witnessed substantial growth for SMS traffic over the years. Thanks to unlimited SMS packages by cellular operators and increased adoption of SMS services, the country is now among the top SMS trafficked countries in the world.
In year 2012-13, the total SMS traffic grew 13.68% from previous year, though the growth rate is lower than corresponding period of previous year but the total figure of SMS exchanged is impressive.
SMS ratio per subscriber per month grew notably. On average a single mobile phone user sent 214 SMS per month, or 7.13 messages per day, up from 131 message per user month average in 2009-10.
This huge number in SMS traffic is likely to grow in Pakistan for next couple of years, when finally it is destined to see a decline due to increasing trend of SMS-based mobile apps such as WhatsApp and Viber.
Cellular companies are already preparing themselves for the future by offering bundled offers with unlimited WhatsApp usage.
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