January 20, 2005
French Premium Rate SMS Grows 66%
There were 228 million premium rate MO text messages sent in France in 2004 - up 66% on 2003, reports Mike Grenville for 160characters.org.
"Premium rate text messaging was introduced in France in October 2002 and until now has only offered Mobile Originated (MO). Called SMS+, the operators in France ( Bouygues Telecom, Orange France and SFR) joined together and set up an organisation to offer a seamless service with a common set of short codes and tarrifs, although to use a code suppliers must sign an Agreement with all three mobile operators separately.
At the end of 2004 there are 500 SMS+ numbers issued (up 48% on 2003) of which 350 are in active use - the rest being prepared for service and in development.
The monthly average is 19 million SMS-MO (up from 11.450 million in 2003), adding up to a total of 228 million in 2004 up from 137 million in 2003. "
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