Company's average texter sends 800 messages a month; text messaging increased 300 percent
JACKSON, Miss. - (August 3, 2005) – The text messaging phenomenon in the U.S. – where the number of messages sent more than doubled in 2004 – is raging among Cellular South customers, who catapulted the company's messaging service to a 300 percent increase in that same period.
Sending an average of 800 messages a month in a flat rate plan, Cellular South's text messaging subscribers skew toward a younger demographic than wireless users who rely strictly on voice calling. As in national trends, teens and young adults are the most prolific texters, although they are being rapidly joined by the over-30 crowd.
"What we've seen and heard in our retail stores is teens and college students are selling their parents on text messaging, and parents are quickly seeing beyond the social benefits to the extra safety measures and convenience that text messaging provides for the whole family," said Jana Latour, Cellular South director of advertising and marketing. "Another concern parents almost always have is cost. That becomes a non-issue for our customers because Cellular South's text messaging service is completely unlimited for a flat rate that typically is a fraction of the total cost charged per message by other companies."
Along with downloadable music, ring tones, gaming and the newer picture messaging, text messaging is one of multiple uses that make wireless phones attractive to teens. While voice calling is still the primary use overall in the U.S., text messaging is quickly becoming the communication method of choice for teens.
Young users have mastered the abbreviated language used in texting, constantly modifying it to fit their own personal styles and to provide privacy among friends. Also enhancing the ease of text messaging is a standard feature called predictive dialing that "predicts" words based on past usage. It allows users to type the first one or two letters of commonly used words or terms and then automatically completes the word, lessening the number of keystrokes required to type a message.
Texting's popularity – both nationwide and among Cellular South customers – can be seen in event-based promotions such as the recent Live 8 concerts and in Mississippi, a first-ever text messaging contest by Cellular South that allowed customers to text their vote for a viewer's choice winner in the Miss Mississippi pageant. Cellular South text messaging customers sent more than 1.3 million votes in the contest.
Another lifestyle trend among teenagers is mobile music, and the ability to carry one device that provides voice calling and text messaging in combination with music, camera and gaming features.
"Listening to music is just as important to teens today as it has been for past generations," said Latour. "The only difference is in the method of delivery, and the latest evolution of that is wireless phones that offer digital music players similar to other stand-alone products on the market."
Cellular South will soon debut the first music-centric phone of its kind in the U.S. The Kyocera Slider Remix KX5 wireless phone is a music player with a high-resolution camera, an eight-directional gaming controller and a large color screen on the sliding faceplate for viewing high-resolution images. The music dock feature plays music directly from the phone through headphones or speakers and expandable memory options allow hours of listening time. Cellular South will be the first carrier in its four-state market area to offer the KX5.
About Cellular South
The company is the largest privately held wireless provider in the U.S. and is licensed to provide wireless service – to a total population of more than five million people – on its network stretching from the Memphis Metropolitan Area, throughout all of Mississippi, along Coastal Alabama and the Florida Panhandle through Walton County. The company has been named Mississippi Business Journal's Salute to Business and Industry 2005 Large Retailer. For more information, contact Cellular South at 1-877-CSOUTH1 or visit cellularsouth.com.
Contact:
Tanya Rankin, Cellular South (601) 974-7134 trankin@cellularsouth.com
