Canadians exchange 220 million texts per day as SMS usage continues to grow

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) recently released some statistics on text messaging, and the numbers continue to swell.

Canadians sent 19.5 billion text messages in the second quarter of 2011. Over 220 million text messages are sent in Canada each day. In the first quarter, 18 billion texts were sent, or 200 million per day.

In 2010, more than 56 billion text messages were sent, which was a 60% increase of 2009's 35 billion. 2011 is already on pace for well over 70 billion and, if growth sustains, could easily crack 80 billion.

As cellphone penetration continues to climb in Canada and unlimited texting becomes the norm for virtually all new plans, text messaging remains the dominant method of instant communication between friends. Even though some may argue it's a colossal scam.