Cellphones beeped endlessly as South Africa’s mobile networks entered the New Year a great deal richer with millions of SMSs sent and voice calls made in three days — from December 30 to January 1.
Cellular networks Cell C, MTN and Vodacom reported huge increases in their SMS traffic during this period.
Cell C reported that more than 16-million SMSs were sent over its South African network during the New Year weekend. MTN reported 60-million and Vodacom saw a significant increase in traffic compared with 2004.
Ravin Maharaj, MTN’s media relations manager, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Wednesday that the figure for the same period in 2004 was 24-million. He attributes the success of this year’s figures to the popularity of SMSing among customers and the various SMS bundles that MTN has introduced.
“In terms of voice traffic, the MTN network carried 1,4-billion voice calls [2004: 1,1-billion] over the festive season,” he said.
MTN acquired its 10-millionth customer during the December 16 weekend.
Cell C spokesperson Happy Zondi said in a statement on Tuesday that 3,8-million SMSs were sent over the Cell C network on December 30, seven million on December 31 and 5,3-million on January 1.
She said the computer system could not pick up the figure for December 30 in 2004, but on December 31 2004, 5,2-million SMSs were sent and the following day, January 1 2005, the figure was 3,7-million.
Zondi said traffic increased considerably after 8pm and peaked at midnight on New Year’s Eve. It increased again after 6am on New Year’s Day.
According to a statement from Vodacom on Thursday morning, it experienced significant increases in voice communication during both Christmas and New Year.
“A similar trend was noted in the number of SMS messages sent during Christmas and New Year when compared to the previous year. MMS messages also showed strong growth, during the period,” it stated.
Vodacom acquired more than one million new subscribers in the month of December 2005, taking its South African subscriber base to 17,5-million.
Dot Field, a Vodacom spokesperson, told the M&G Online on Thursday morning the increase in total traffic during the festive season was mainly the result of the increase in subscribers.
“If you compare this year to last year, there are a few million more subscribers,” she said.
She attributed the growing success of SMSs and MMSs to people in South Africa adopting new technologies.
“Soon people will start sending video messages instead of SMSs to loved ones. It’s all part of adopting new technologies.”