Texting traffic jam expected at midnight

PARIS, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The message might be predictable, but the number of texts sent on New Year's Eve in France is expected to be enormous, records indicate.

On New Year's Eve in 2010, about 930 million text messages were sent in France, testing the capacity of the country's three largest phone services, Orange, SFR and Bouygues, The Local in France reported Saturday.

Some customers then found their next bills included charges of $518 for texts that were sent several times erroneously, the newspaper said.

The billing error was corrected but showed the potential for technical problems when there were nearly a billion texts sent.

"It's like a motorway where, all of a sudden, you have seven times as many cars arriving at the toll booths," said Mathieu Leclerc, an engineer at phone service Bouygues.

That traffic jam of "Happy New Year" messages resembles a highway traffic jam in a fundamental way. The average text message arrives in seven seconds. On New Year's Eve, messages could take hours to reach their destination, The Local said.