7. Mobile

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Voice minutes v SMS texts. Source: ComReg, Irish Communications Market:Key Data Report 2006

We’re talking more, texting more and increasingly sending more multimedia messages.

Voice activity on mobiles has climbed by 24% year-on-year, to a staggering 1.8 billion minutes of mobile talk in the third quarter of 2006.

Mobile penetration in Ireland. Source: Baskerville Mobile Communications, ComReg

SMS activity is showing a similar trend – topping 1.4 billion messages in that quarter. That works out at an average of 107 SMS messages for each mobile subscriber.

MMS usage. Source: ComReg, Irish Communications Market:Key Data Report 2006

Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a minnow by comparison, but it’s also on an upward curve. The quarterly total now comes to 8.1 million messages.
We’re no stellar performer, by European standards. The latest EU mobile penetration numbers puts us at 106% of the population, a couple of points off the EU average and a long way behind the top country, Luxembourg.

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