Texting more popular than calling among American cell phone users

Washington, Sep 24 : Americans send more text messages from their cell phones than they make calls, according to Nielsen Mobile survey.

The survey revealed that for the second quarter of 2008, U.S. mobile subscribers sent and received on average 357 text messages per month, compared with making and receiving 204 phone calls a month.

In the first quarter of 2006, Americans had sent and received 65 text messages per month.

The number of messages sent and received today has increased 450 percent. But even though people are texting more, it doesn't mean that they've stopped talking on the phone, reports CBS News.

According to Nielsen, the number of phone calls that people make and receive each month has remained relatively flat over the past two years.

Text messaging earlier became popular in Europe and Asia, as it was cheaper than calling, but in the U.S. texting is proving to be a cash cow for carriers.

Over the past two years, the cost of sending and receiving individual text messages without a special text message package has gone up 100 percent with individual text messages costing 20 cents per message.

Carriers are now offering unlimited cell phone texting plans that cost an additional 20 dollars a month, which makes sending texts more affordable for heavy texters.

Text messaging is more famous among teens between 13 to 17 years old, who on an average send and receive about 1,742 text messages a month, the report even suggests that teens or kids under the age of 12 are also heavy text users, averaging about 428 messages per month.

ANI