Swedes send four million fewer festive text messages

Christmas Eve is no holiday for telephone operators. Over the past years the record-high Christmas telephone and text messaging traffic are beaten only by New Year’s Eve.

• Prosecutor seeks docs in TeliaSonera bribes case (7 Jun 13)
• WyWallet cancels mobile payment policy (1 Jun 13)
• Cop avoids sacking for 'sexting' teen girl (8 May 13)

This year, however, the number of text messages sent on Christmas Eve has decreased for the first time.

“Maybe the big texting explosion has come to an end,” said Erik Hörnfeldt, from the telephone operator Tre, to news agency TT.

Both Telia and Telenor set new records for number of text messages sent during Christmas Eve, but the operators Tre and Tele2 decreased their numbers for texted Christmas greetings.

According to TT’s calculations, the number of text messages sent through the four major operators has decreased by four million messages this year, which is a change of trend.

“Seven or eight years ago people started texting their Christmas greetings, instead of calling to wish a merry Christmas. My guess is that in a year or two people will send Christmas greetings via Facebook, Twitter, or the like,” Erik Hörnfeldt said.

The break of trend is also apparent in Sweden’s neighbouring countries. In Denmark messaging traffic through Telia went down by a million texts, as data traffic rose by 36 procent, and in Norway operator Telenor reports that messaging traffic has decreased by five million text messages over the past two Christmasses.

“We’re convinced that several of those who have sent text messages with Christmas greetings in the past now increasingly communicate through Facebook and other social media,” said Per Aril Meling, Telenor’s information officer, to news agency NTB.