The UK is faring particularly well with over 25 million text messages senteach day. Growth is driven in particular by people who earn over £30,000 asthose sending SMS messages every day is increasing 16.9 percent year onyear. However, the growth in mobile messaging by those earning less than£30,000 is also doing well with almost 4 percent annual growth of thosesending SMS everyday.

France is seeing the second biggest increase with 8.1 percent more peoplesending text messages this year than the same period last year.Interestingly the French have also been the most keen to embrace picturemessaging with 15.2 percent more people sending MMS than in 2007 (thebiggest increase across Europe).

However, it is not only Europe which is seeing a continued growth in SMSand MMS. Airwide predicts a worldwide growth in mobile messaging over thenext few years, particularly in less economically developed and newlyindustrialised regions such Asia and Africa where fixed lines are expensiveand difficult to set up. It is in these regions where mobile phones arebeing used not only as a communications tool but also as a driver forsocial change, making communications easier, cheaper and much lesstime-consuming.

In the Western World, growth will be fuelled by a combination of mobileoperators introducing a greater number of personalised services such asout-of-office, auto-forward and storage/back-up capabilities along with acontinued uptake in mobile marketing and advertising -- a development whichin 2009 will see the introduction of location based mobile advertising.

Jay Seaton, Chief Marketing Officer at Airwide Solutions, commented:"Whilst an increase in mobile messaging traffic is certainly good news forthe industry, it also underlines the need to ensure that an operator'sunderlying infrastructure is efficient and equipped to support the increasein traffic volumes over the years ahead. With most people now relying ontheir text and picture messages being delivered instantaneously, mobileoperators cannot afford for their infrastructure to become congested. Asthe volume of messaging increases, they also need to be able to protecttheir networks and subscribers from potential security threats such asmobile fraud, spam and viruses."

About Airwide Solutions

Airwide Solutions is the leading provider of next-generation mobilemessaging and wireless internet infrastructure, applications and solutions.Its products help more than 140 wireless operators worldwide drive mobilemessaging usage and revenues and enable them to leverage multiple deliverychannels and next-generation infrastructure in new and more powerful ways.With a history of industry firsts -- including the first text message eversent, the introduction of the first SMS router, the first A2P MMS pushgateway and mobile service control which enables mobile context,personalization and profiling -- the company continues to pioneer newtechnologies. Airwide's open, tiered Fusion architecture offers mobileoperators advanced revenue options, a practical pathway to Mobile Messaging2.0 and a foundation to bridge mobile messaging and the mobile internet.

Airwide Solutions operates globally with offices in Europe, the Americas,Asia Pacific, India, the Middle East and Africa. For more information aboutAirwide Solutions, please visit www.airwidesolutions.com.

For more information please contact:Brenda SuarezAirwide SolutionsEmail: Email ContactTel: 781-229-2406 ext. 2731Gemma YatesMi libertyEmail: Email ContactTel: +44 (0)20 7751 4444Kristin ConfortiPAN CommunicationsEmail: Email ContactTel: 978-474-1900