Christmas Eve in the T-Mobile network

• Total traffic was up 16%
• Multimedia messages registered a significant increase of 19%
• The SMS centre processed 31.2 million messages   

Prague, 25 December 2009 - Christmas wishes sent by mobile phone users once again contributed to a significant increase in traffic on Christmas Eve - this year, total traffic went up by 16% compared to the last year. The number of calls, too, increased by 2.8% to 16.9 million. The biggest growth was registered with multimedia messages, which were up by almost 19%. Nevertheless, text messages remain to be the most favourite means of sending Christmas greetings: this Christmas, the SMS centre processed 31.2 million text messages, in spite of a 1.7% year-on-year decrease in the number of text messages sent from mobile phones. T‑Mobile customers sent 27.7 million text messages, with most SMS being sent between 10:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m.

For several years in a row, we are witnessing a trend of customers preferring a more "personal" delivery of season's greetings to their family and friends - by calling them. This year's Christmas Eve was no exception: the total number of incoming and outgoing calls was almost 16.9 million, which is a more than 2.8% increase on the previous year. Out of this number, almost 9.3 million calls were made by T‑Mobile customers. Like last year, the heaviest voice traffic was registered between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., when 1.6 million calls took place. A higher traffic was registered also between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., when people shared their impressions of the Christmas gifts.

The total number of text messages processed by T‑Mobile's SMS centre increased by 1.5% to almost 31.2 million compared to the last year. Customers sent a total of almost 27.7 million text messages from their mobile phones, which is a slight year-on-year decrease of 1.7%. On the other hand, the number of text messages sent from external applications grew by almost a million to approx. 3.5 million messages. The peak hour was the period between 12:15 p.m. and 1:15 p.m., when the SMS centre processed more than 3 million messages. During the busiest quarter of an hour, between 12:45 p.m. and 1:00 p.m., 774,000 text messages were sent.

Multimedia messages experienced the biggest growth this year again: while in 2008 approx. 205,000 messages were processed by the MMS centre (sent from mobile phones, external applications and over the internet), this Christmas Eve more than 244,000 such messages were sent, up by almost 19% compared to the previous year. The heaviest MMS traffic was registered two hours earlier than last year - between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. - when more than 23,600 multimedia messages were sent from mobile phones, external applications and over the internet. But the busiest quarter of an hour was the period between 6:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., when the MMS centre received 7,400 messages.

On Christmas Eve, the T‑Mobile network was most used by visitors from Germany (27%), United Kingdom (13%) and Slovakia (8%). The Top 10 most active "roamers" also includes the Dutch, Poles, Austrians, Italians, Russians, French and Ukrainians.

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.