Source: The Hindustan Times
NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 5, 2002: Nine million SMS (Short Message Service) messages were sent across the airwaves on Deepavali, sending Delhi’s mobile messaging highways into gridlock. The SMS surge slowed things to a crawl for the better part of Monday. According to estimates, close to nine million SMS messages were exchanged by cell phone users in Delhi alone, with Airtel recording nearly 1.9 million messages on Monday. The previous day the number was around 1.4 million. Hutch, a second wireless phone system, recorded SMS traffic of close to 5 million during the period. “That represents a 500 percent jump over normal usage. Compared to last Deepavali, New Year or Holi, the rush was unprecedented,” said Hutch officials. On a national basis, over 25 million messages were generated. It was not just simply “Happy Deepavali,” text SMS, lengthy, flashing and picture messages with different ring tones fought for airspace.