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How many text messages have you sent today? If you live in the U.S., and you’re not a college student, you might answer “one or two,” or even “none.” If you are a U.S. college student, however, you might say “I don’t know, I haven’t counted,” and you might have sent over a hundred, according to a study conducted by Campus Media Group (Student Monitor Student Cell Phone Usage Study - Spring 2006). This is far behind text-message usage in Europe and Asia, where text messaging was initially much less expensive than voice calls, but it is catching up.

For example, VeriSign was processing roughly 80 million Short Message Service (SMS) messages a day through its infrastructure in March 2006, and as of September 2007 VeriSign processes over 285 million such messages a day. Chirag Bakshi, vice president, mobile messaging at VeriSign, says that these numbers will continue to rise, as cell-phones play an ever more prominent role in American’s lives. “I think that in five to ten years, a handheld device will be the standard tool for doing such things as making reservations, ordering tickets, or requesting information,” says Bakshi.

Multiple Uses for Text Messages

Text messages have enormous potential for dozens of powerful and profitable applications, which are only now becoming realized in the U.S. Here are just a few examples:

• Innovative television programs are allowing viewers to vote via text message to affect the outcome of the show or win a prize.
• A service announced in June of 2007 allows Boston residents to use text messages to anonymously provide information about crimes that may help police make their communities safer.
• The Live Earth concert of July 7, 2007 allowed millions of audience members to pledge commitments, via text message, to making changes in their lives to improve the environment.

Text messages can also be automatically broadcast to users in response to a wide variety of conditions.

An organization’s use of text messages is limited only by their imagination.

For more information about the text-message-delivery capabilities of VeriSign’s infrastructure, please visit the SMS pages on VeriSign.com, as well as VeriSign’s Three-Screen Solution pages.