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Over 8.7 and 9.9 million mobile short messages were sent by local mobile service users respectively on the recent Christmas and New Year days, representing an increase of nearly 111% and 141 % against the average daily number of short messages sent, according to the statistics released by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) today (January 4).
"It is a good time to express one's greetings to his/her family and friends during the festive season. In order to allow the public to have a clearer picture of the trend of using mobile short message service, OFTA has made its first attempt this year to release the figures of short messages sent and received on specific dates. Other than the statistics for Christmas and New Year days, we also plan to release the figures of short messages sent and received on the forthcoming Chinese New Year Day (January 29) and Valentine's Day (February 14)," a spokesperson for OFTA said.
"We wish to give special thanks to the six mobile network operators for their co-operation and support in providing us with the data for Christmas and New Year Days in a timely manner," the spokesperson said.
The monthly aggregate figures have already been posted on OFTA's website and updated regularly for public information.
"The statistics have not only shown the growth of the mobile short message service but also revealed it as a channel increasingly used by Hong Kong people to greet each other on special occasions," the spokesperson said.
"On Christmas Day (December 25) alone, a total of 8.716 million outgoing mobile short messages have been recorded, whereas a total of 9.936 million outgoing mobile short messages were recorded on New Year Day (January 1)."
For incoming mobile short messages, the total number recorded on Christmas and New Year Days were 11,238,000 and 12,163,000 respectively.
"The average daily number of outgoing mobile messages from October 2004 to September 2005 was 4.125 million, while the average daily number of mobile messages received was 7.025 million during the same period," the spokesperson said.
For collection of the statistics for the "special dates" (namely the New Year Day, the Chinese New Year Day, the Valentine's Day and the Christmas Day), a total of 25 hours is counted, starting from one hour prior to midnight of the day in question to midnight of next day. This is to take into account the fact that many users will send their festive greetings shortly before midnight. The detailed statistics can be downloaded from OFTA's website: www.ofta.gov.hk.
Ends/Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:07
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