The number of voice calls being made has remained steady over the past two years, but text messages sent and received have increased by a staggering 450 percent.
At the end of 2007, text messaging had just overtaken voice calls 218 to 213. But by the end of the second quarter of this year, an average mobile phone subscriber placed or received 204 calls, compared with sending or receiving 357 text messages.
Teens between the ages of 13 and 17 now send or receive 1,742 messages per month, compared to the second-highest age group, 18 to 24 year olds, who send and receive about 790 messages.
Read the story in Wired News or New York Times.
2 Comments
Absent
I presume the relative cost of sending a sms is lower in US and this may be the reason for the above.
It is interesting to see Sri Lankan Situation. If the above argument is true the sms usage should decline given the low voice tarrif, Per second billing and all you can eat type of pricing plans.
Hope lirnasia have some data relating this or prof. could share his view on this.
Rohan Samarajiva
Our analysis of the data from the BOP Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Philippines pointed to the ratio between the cost of a call and an SMS as the key determinant of SMS use. India, where an SMS cost about the same as a one minute call had the lowest use.
We are wary about extrapolating from Asia to other places as much as we are wary about extrapolating from other regions to Asia. But this would indeed be a good starting point for analysis. Also, you have to understand that the significance of price for those at the bottom of the pyramid may not be the same as for those at the top.
US has a lot of bucket pricing–buckets of minutes, buckets of SMS. So straight comparisons will be tough. One can also imagine that the psychology of a user of SMS that comes as a part of a bucket is different from one who is paying for an individual SMS.
Can Copyright Law still serve the public interest in the age of AI?
The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence is reshaping debates around copyright, accessibility, and innovation. In a recent article published in The Hindu, Pranesh Prakash, Co-Principal Investigator for LIRNEasia’s D4D Asia Project, discusses how copyright law must adapt to the realities of AI-driven technologies in a way that balances creators’ rights with the public interest.
Harnessing Data for Democratic Development in South and Southeast Asia: Pakistan Country Report
This report on data governance in Pakistan is part of the “Harnessing Data for Democratic Development in South and Southeast Asia” (D4DAsia) project, which aims, inter alia, to create and mobilize new knowledge about the tensions, gaps, and evolution of the data governance ecosystem, taking into account both formal and informal policies and practices. This report is also part of a broader comparative effort that includes case studies from India, Indonesia, Nepal, South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines.
LIRNEasia expertise contributes to Sri Lanka’s first National Policy on Archives and Records Management
Archives and records management is a critical foundation of any society, but especially in information societies that are emerging now. Unfortunately, this subject tends to be neglected.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
9A 1/1, Balcombe Place
Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2026 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific