Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordanians sent over 19 million SMS messages during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, celebrated at the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Thursday.

President of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Mohammad Ta'ani told Ammon News that the number of SMS messages exchanged through mobile phones dropped this Eid, compared to previous years, according to information provided by the three main mobile service providers in the Kingdom, Zain, Umniah, and Orange.

Ta'ani said that internet and 3G data packages on smart phones, coupled with the rise of mobile Apps and social networking sites has affected people's usage of mobile phones and lowered the overall numbers of SMS messages exchanged between Jordanians.

In statements to Ammon News, the mobile service providers estimated the value of exchanged SMS messages at nearly JD 500,000.

The companies also noted a 20-40 percent increase on number of minutes used to talk on mobile phones during the Eid holiday, compared to regular days throughout the years.

Official statistics that the number of mobile subscriptions in the kingdom reached nearly 9.5 million subscriptions.