Belgians sent record number sms texts 02/01/2008 00:00

Sms avalanche exceeded expectations

2 January 2008 - 59,000 sms texts were sent on New Year's Eve. The three mobile phone operators in Belgium: Proximus, Mobistar and Base, were prepared for the sms avalanche- though it exceeded their expectation of about 47 million sms messages.

The three mobile phone operators had increased their capacity so the networks would be able to handle the increased traffic New Year's Eve. The capacity was expanded especially in the big cities and in the vicinity of discotheques.

Mobistar has reported traffic of 1,267 messages per minute during peak moments.

To limit any potential problems, the gsm operators had advised people to spread their messages out during the course of the night.

No major problems were reported on any of the networks in Belgium. 10.4 million mobile phones

There are some 10.4 million mobile telephones in circulation in Belgium. During the past year some 664,000 new subscriptions have been registered.

The operators attribute the considerable increase in new subscriptions to the fact that more and more people are getting a second gsm.  

Some have one gsm for work and another one for private use; some are also getting a mobile car phone.

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