In the first 24 hours of the new Iranian year (started March 21), people around the country sent 1.16 billion text messages on the largest mobile network operator MCI (Hamra-e-Aval), the company's PR department reported on Saturday. During Nowruz vacation period (March 20-April 3), 10.79 billion text messages were sent on MCI, the report says.
Irancell, the second largest mobile phone network operator in Iran, registered 8.64 billion text messages in the same period, which showed a 20 percent decline compared to its 10.2 billion text messages during the same time last year, Digiato website reported on Saturday.
Viber and other smartphone telephony apps hosted 19 billion messages on their own, Webna reported on Sunday.
Prior to Nowruz, the number of sent texts during the annual festive period continued on an upward trajectory with a 65 percent increase in the number of SMSs communicated over the two prior years.
However, as the latest data shows, the time when SMS were the most favoured form of mobile telecommunication seem to be coming to an end with the rise of mobile internet services like 3G and LTE services gradually coming online.
