After years of lagging behind Europe and Japan in the adoption of mobile text messaging, US subscribers have finally caught the SMS (short messaging service) bug.- reports the FT .

A total of 48.7bn SMS messages were sent in the last six months of 2005, up 50 per cent from 32.5bn in the first six months of last year,
according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association(CTIA).

.Cingular has seen its lucrative SMS traffic surge, boosted in part by SMS voting for contestants on American Idol, the TV talent show.
Over the past year Cingular, a joint venture between AT&T and BellSouth, recorded 64.5m SMS votes for American Idol, up 52 per cent from the
previous season. “American Idol was big and started people messaging said Mr Ryan.