InphoMatch posts record boost in SMS traffic in North America

We read all about the massive number of SMS sent in Europe. In the UK alone more than 2 billion SMS were sent in February 2004. And we always think "How come North American users don't use this?"

Perhaps because of paying to receive a SMS is not fun, while is most of the world it's free?

Well, it seems things are changing. InphoMatch, a company that acts as a clearing house to SMS, making sure these short messages can flow between different networks, announced that they delivered nearly two billion SMS messages in the first quarter of 2004, up from 650 million messages in Q1, 2003. The company also posted a record SMS delivery increase for the first quarter of 2004, up 36.51% from Q4, 2003.

The company says it currently delivers 75% of inter-carrier SMS messaging in the U.S. ; out-of-network traffic represents 40-45% of a carrier's total SMS message volume. The company delivered over four billion inter-carrier text messages during calendar year 2003. And 18 March 2004 was a prominent stand-alone day for traffic delivery, with 24.5 million messages transported by InphoMatch's integrated, reliable delivery network.

"The rapid growth of the SMS market in the U.S. is directly reflected in the sheer volume of messages InphoMatch successfully delivers every day, every month, and throughout the year," says Neville Street , CEO of InphoMatch. "Anyone who wants to better understand the potential opportunity of MMS messaging can gain insight by reviewing the astonishing rate of growth in our SMS traffic numbers."

The InphoMatch services are also being used by Vodafone to make sure SMS from their GSM network reach users on CDMA networks. Telecom New Zealand is another user of this service.