Mobile operators have reported increased revenue from services other than SMS in the first quarter of 2007 when compared with the same period last year.

Global mobile data revenues from services other than SMS (short message services, or text messaging) exceeded $10bn in the first three months of the year, according to Informa's World Cellular Data Metrics (WCDM).

Non-SMS revenues for the quarter came in at $11.3bn compared with $8.1bn for the equivalent period in 2006. The 2007 figure represents nearly one-third of the first quarter's total mobile data revenues of $34.3bn.

Out of 70 operators tracked by Informa, the proportion of data revenues coming from non-SMS differed widely. Ireland's O2 reported that 20 per cent of its data revenue was coming from non-SMS services. This figure was towards the lower end of the scale, with the highest proportion of 70 per cent being reported by Korea's KTF. Vodafone Egypt reported a figure of just one per cent.

The same Informa report shows that SMS remains a very popular technology, however. Worldwide SMS traffic was up year-on-year by around 50 per cent to more than 620 billion messages sent during the quarter. SMS revenues were up 23 per cent over the same period.

The higher increase in SMS traffic compared with revenue is explained by the trend towards lower SMS tariffs and the greater availability of bundled packages.

© 2007 ENN

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