Almost 200,000 SMSs sent every second: ITU

The popularity of text messaging has leapt three-fold in the past three years, with almost 200,000 text messages sent every second, the UN telecommunications agency said Tuesday.

A total of 1.8 trillion SMSs were sent in 2007, but in 2010, the number sent has jumped to 6.1 trillion, said the International Telecommunication Union.

This translates to revenues of 14,000 dollars (10,050 euros) every second and 812,000 dollars every minute, said the agency.

Users in the Philippines and the United States were among the most prolific, accounting for 35 percent of all text messages sent in 2009.