<p>A new report from analyst firm, Juniper Research, forecasts that global mobile messaging traffic will reach 28.2 trillion annually by 2017 nearly double the 14.7 trillion messages which will be sent in 2012.</p><p>Mobile messages comprise SMS, MMS, IM, Email, RCS/RCS-e and social media messages.</p><p>Growth in total traffic will be primarily driven by the use of instant messaging services, which will comprise over a quarter of all traffic annually in five years' time according to Juniper's analysts.</p><p>So-called OTT (Over-the-Top) services such as eBuddy, iMessage, Nimbuzz and Whatsapp are already having an impact on mobile network operators' messaging businesses, as smartphone owners find instant messaging a cheaper alternative.</p><p><a href="http://businesstech.co.za/news/mobile/22170/mobile-messaging-traffic-to-double-by-2017/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.intomobile.com/2012/09/14/juniper-research-mobile-messaging-traffic-nearly-double-over-next-5-years/">Juniper Research: Mobile messaging traffic to nearly double over next 5 years</a> (IntoMobile)</p><p><a href="http://thefonecast.com/News/tabid/62/ArticleID/6178/ArtMID/541/Mobile-messaging-will-almost-double-in-the-next-five-years.aspx">Mobile messaging will almost double in the next five years</a> (The Fonecast)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&ned=us&ncl=dwMPoDgehUB1_8MMNXqwfADwMLqVM">6 additional articles.</a></p>