Americans miss out on joys of text messaging

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

WASHINGTON - Depending on your point of view, mobile phone users in the US are missing out on one of life's simplest pleasures or else are wisely avoiding one its most annoying new trends - phone texting.

New figures suggest that while 19 billion messages were sent worldwide last year by texting - or Short Message Service (SMS) - barely any of them were sent in the US. The US is almost a text-free zone.

Part of the problem was that until last April many of the nation's mobile phone networks - notoriously well behind Europe - were unable to carry such messages.

But phone companies have also not been marketing the joys that arise from telling someone: "CU L8R".

"It's partly a cultural issue but the blame also falls on the US cellular companies," said Allan Reiter, a telecommunications analyst and publisher of the Wireless internet and Mobile Computing newsletter.

Experts say that texting is already being overtaken by less expensive alternatives, including email and instant messaging.

- INDEPENDENT