Nearly 5,000 text messages are sent every second in the UK, according to an industry report.
Mobile phone users sent more than six billion texts during December - a record high for a single month.
Revellers sent 290 million texts on New Year's Eve alone - 30 per cent more than the same night the previous year, the Mobile Data Association (MDA) said.
Picture messages are also becoming more popular, with 57.6 million sent in December, up 55 per cent on the same month of 2006.
The six billion text messages sent in December was up from 5.3 billion in December 2006, the MDA's UK Mobile Report found.
And nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of UK mobile users accessed the internet via their handsets in December.
This equates to around 17 million people, the report said.
MDA chairman Mike Short said: "The mobile industry remains one of the fastest growing sectors throughout the world.
"Whether you look at Asia, India, Europe or the UK, the story is the same: mobile technology is enhancing and even shaping the way we live our daily lives."
The MDA represents the main mobile operators in the UK. It compiles data supplied by O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile, 3, Orange and Virgin.
T-Mobile UK's chief executive, Jim Hyde, said: "Ever-improving 3G coverage and connection speeds are stimulating the uptake of high-speed mobile broadband services such as web browsing, downloading music and mobile TV."
