The last few years it has become quite common to send greetings to friends and family on Christmas Eve via text messages, SMS. But this year telecom operators in Sweden, Norway and Denmark report a significant decrease in the number of messages. In Sweden, the four operators Tre (3), Tele 2, Telia and Telenor distributed a total of 72.5 million text messages on Christmas Eve, down from 76.5 million in 2009. In Norway, Telenor report a decrease with 5 million text messages compared to 2008, this year Norwegian customers sent 17.1 million SMS. The same pattern can be found in Denmark, where Telia report a decrease by 1 million SMS.
The operators claim that the reason behind the lower volumes is an increased use of Facebook and other social media. The conclusion is supported by the fact that data traffic has increased during this Christmas compared to previous years, most likely because customers are taking photos and uploading them to Facebook and other social networks, where they share it with friends.