Receiving New Year's Greetings in January

You know how it works. You send an SMS, and you are sure it has arrived. You have the "Send Confirmation", right? Following up on it with the receiver, a couple of hours later, may be, you realise that your message didn't go the way it was intended to.

Or, remember those evenings over Christmas, End of Ramadan, Chinese New Year of Deepavali, when you send SMS to friends and relatives. You send and send and send. Many fail, the first time around, since the wires are overloaded. So you go again. In the end, well, they went out and you are happy.

A different story emerged in Australia. Here, mobile phone users "have been complaining that text messages sent by friends and family based in Europe on New Year's Eve have taken up to five days to make the 17,000-kilometre journey."

Well, part of the reason is the popularity of SMS messages and the offers around them from companies. The surge in the number of SMS is just too much for the wires to carry. And oh well, at least the messages arrive.

(By Asia Business Consulting)