SMS Traffic Volumes 2008-2013

The graph displayed in this blog, was generated from gathering the SMS volumes published by Comreg from their Quarterly Reviews spanning 2008 to 2013 which are sourced from their website.  While it shows a decline in the overall traffic volume between 2012 and 2013, the figures have to be understood in the context that they contain all SMS traffic, both consumer and corporate.

While consumer demand is inevitably declining within a certain age demographic (which was fueled by free SMS to SMS offers; for example ones offered by Meteor in the past) due to the introduction of new technologies such as iMessage and various messaging apps between smartphones, there remains a healthy demand for non-consumer messaging, as we can witness with the wide ranging use of SMS that simply cannot currently be replicated cost-effectively in areas such as:

  1. Agriculture; Examples: For producers to contact farmers with milk quality analysis results, or AI companies alerting of new samples.
  2. Media; Examples: For listeners to contribute to radio shows, or for radio stations to send out invitations to music/film events.
  3. Transport and Logistics; Examples: Organizing delivery times, informing passengers of delayed ferries due to weather etc.
  4. IT Server Monitoring; Examples: Sending out alerts for website or server issues to oncall personnel.
  5. Services; Examples: The service industry can span from informing opt-in customer list of upcoming sales or sending out m-discount coupons.
  6. Food and Beverage; Examples: Manufacturers  receiving order updates from mobile sales staff or sending out customer callbacks contact information to mobile staff members.
  7. Corporate CRM and Email based systems also rely on SMS capabilities, to enable sending of messages to mobile handsets.

Thus there is a vibrant, expansive and on ongoing use of SMS within the corporate sector that remains consistent despite the introduction of more consumer tailored messaging technologies used over the smartphone medium.

SMS Volumes

Traffic Volumes 2008-2013 From Comreg.ie Quarterly Reviews