If you're hoping to get a message to someone on New Year's Day via the SMS (short message service) facility on your cellphone, then be patient: as many as 50-million messages could clog the networks.
And the bad news is that if you get the "message failed" note on the screen of your cellphone, indicating the SMS didn't go through, you could still be charged for it.
According to the three cellphone networks - Vodacom, MTN and Cell C - 50,3-million text messages went out on Christmas Day and the Day of Goodwill.
Vodacom media relations manager Ivan Booth says Vodacom logged 8-million SMSs from cell to cell, while from its Internet site and consortiums such as national clothing stores sending messages to their card holders, more than 12-million messages were logged on Christmas Day. On the Day of Goodwill, close on 10-million messages were sent on Vodacom's network.
MTN corporate affairs group executive Yvonne Muthien says that on December 25 and 26 about 20-million messages were delivered to MTN subscribers.
Cell C has 130 000 subscribers, according to corporate communications head Zeona Motshabi. On average 156 000 messages are sent daily, which increased to 298 000 on Christmas Day.
A number of Vodacom customers complained on Christmas Day that their messages had attracted the "message failed" note. A customer with a pre-paid card checked her account balance afterwards and found that an SMS that had not been sent had been charged for. Another customer, who phoned Vodacom's customer care centre, was told that the network was experiencing problems because of the high volume of messages.
Some MTN subscribers had similar problems.
Booth says that on average three million cell-to-cell messages are sent daily on the Vodacom network, with 6,5 million sent from Vodacom's Internet site.
"A person can send up to 20 messages from our website, which doesn't cost a cent," he adds.
"Yes, there was a little congestion, but it is impossible to say which areas were the most affected as the messages all go through one central system."
Booth says the messages are charged on submission, but only if they go through. Failed messages aren't charged for, and people who discover that they have been charged should query this with their service provider.
"We bump our capacity every holiday season to allow a greater number of messages to go through," he explains.
One of the reasons Booth gives for the high number of messages is the introduction of flashing messages, such as a Christmas tree or "Merry Christmas".
"These are downloaded from our website and have proved very popular," he adds.
Muthien says: "Customers did not generally experience delays, congestion or dropped calls as MTN has added enough signalling capacity to prevent any delays during high-volume periods."
The SMS centres have been upgraded with the latest hardware and operating systems to create sufficient capacity, she adds.
However, some problems were experienced. One message that was sent at 3pm on Christmas Day came through at 11.40am two days later.
"If recipients aren't available to receive messages, a queue can build up at the SMS centre because message delivery is delayed until the recipient is available," Muthien explains.
This could be due to the phone being busy, off, or out of the coverage area. In this case, a standby SMS centre handles the overflow of traffic.
"To prevent perceived delays, MTN advises customers to delete old messages regularly so that there is enough capacity on their handsets to receive the messages. Alternatively, they should leave their phones on at such times to allow message delivery and prevent a queue building at the message centre," Muthien says.
Volumes over New Year's Eve are expected to be similar to, if not greater than, those on Christmas Day because many people will try to send messages at the stroke of midnight.
However, the service providers are confident they will be able to handle the increased cellular traffic.
