Technology eats into Thai SMS growth Bangkok Post: 23 Feb 2011 Surging use of social network sites and instant messaging in emerging markets such as Thailand are eating into the growth of mobile SMS traffic, Informa Telecoms & Media reports in the latest edition of its World Cellular Data Metrics.Senior analyst Pamela Clark-Dickson said growing demand for social networks and instant messaging, particularly in China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, was resulting in a drop in SMS traffic and revenue.
The report forecast SMS traffic in Asia-Pacific would grow by almost 14% annually from 2009-15.
SMS traffic in 2009 totalled 1.8 trillion messages, with the figure rising to 4.3 trillion in 2015.
But Advanced Info Service, Thailand's largest mobile operator, said it has seen annual growth of only 8.46% in its SMS traffic, from 650 million messages in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 760 million in last year's third quarter.
The report shows mobile operators globally are spending aggressively to roll out networks for long-term evolution technology and high-speed mobile data infrastructures instead of messaging systems.
However, SMS service remains a core offering for users, contributing up to 80% of operators' data and messaging revenue.
As well, Ms Clark-Dickson said SMS messaging has gained increasing popularity in emerging countries for mobile financial services.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/telecom/223027/technology-eats-into-sms-growth
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