Figures released Sunday by Beijing Mobile and Beijing Unicom, two major telecommunications operators in the Chinese capital, showed that about 5,800 text messages were sent per second Saturday in Beijing.

The Chinese Lunar New Year starts on the first day of the first lunar month, which falls on Sunday this year. Reuniting with family members, ushering in luck for the year and sending New Year greetings are usually the key themes.

Nationwide, China Mobile and China Unicom estimated on Sunday that Chinese people would send around 14 billion festival text messages during the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday.

Official statistics indicated that Chinese people sent 429.6 billion text messages through mobile phones last year, a daily average of up to 1.2 billion.

There were more than 460 million mobile phones subscribers in China at the end of 2006.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)