|
El Paso No. 1 in U.S. for text messaging
EL PASO, Nov 27, 2008 (El Paso Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Text messaging is growing across the country, and El Paso's largely young, Hispanic population is tops in the nation for texting from their cell phones, a new study has found.
Fifty-seven percent of El Paso cell-phone users 18 and older text-message, compared with 48 percent nationally, Scarborough Research, a New York consumer and media research firm, reported this week.
Young adults ages 18 to 24, Hispanics and African-Americans are groups that do a lot of texting, Scarborough reported.
"It's the means of communication nowadays," said UTEP student Adrian Rivera, 24, who uses his cell phone almost exclusively for texting. "It's convenient and discreet. It doesn't require using your voice, and you can do it almost anywhere. I'm texting in class and while working" as a bartender, he said.
"I'm surprised by the El Paso ranking. I thought it would be another city, a bigger city," Rivera said.
Dallas-Fort Worth, Salt Lake City and Memphis tied for second with 55 percent of cell-phone users in those metro areas texting, the study found.
Last year, El Paso ranked ninth in the nation for text messaging in a study done by the Nielsen Co., another New York media research
company.
Jenny Weaver, a spokeswoman in Phoenix for Verizon Wireless, said, "El Paso customers are very data- savvy. They do a lot of text messaging, downloadable music. Unlimited messaging plans have been very popular, and data traffic (which includes texting, e-mail, music, and Internet) is up five-fold" from 2006 to 2007 in Verizon's El Paso-New Mexico market area.
El Pasoans use their cell phones a lot, Weaver said. El Paso's Verizon customers ranked fourth for cell-phone use among the nation's 50 largest cities in a study done by the company in 2006, she said.
Texting has grown tremendously since it was introduced in 2000, Weaver said. It's popular with the youth market and the business user, who uses it to keep in touch during meetings, but "it's something people of all ages are (now) using," Weaver said. That's why unlimited text-messaging plans are now offered by Verizon and other wireless companies.
In the first half of this year, more than 384 billion text messages were reported by wireless carriers, according to data from CTIA, a Las Vegas-based association for the wireless telecommunications industry. In 2004, 24.7 billion text messages were reported for the entire year.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.
For more information: www.scarborough.com; www.ctia.org.
Top texting markets
Cities ranked by percentage of cell phone users using text messaging on their cell phones:
--1. El Paso, 57 percent.
--2. Dallas-Fort Worth, Memphis, and Salt Lake City, 55 percent.
--5. Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, 54 percent.
--7. Atlanta, and Chattanooga, Tenn., 53 percent.
--9. Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, and Colorado Springs-Pueblo, Colo., 52 percent.
Source: Scarborough Research.
To see more of the El Paso Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.elpasotimes.com. Copyright (c) 2008, El Paso Times, Texas Distributed
by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
