Charleston behind on its T9ing (That's cellphone text messaging to the rest of you)

Verizon wireless reported it's South Carolina customers sent nearly 500 percent more text messages in April than they did for the same month in 2006. It shot up some 550 percent in Charleston to 32 million texts sent and received. Not too bad you may be thinking.

Well, Greenville shot up 614 percent to 116 million texts sent and received. Charleston, get with it.

Here's the numbers:

April 2006 April 2008 Growth MyrtleBeach 869,369 6,052,970 696.2% Oconee County 1,169,231 7,695,988 658.2% Anderson 4,049,746 25,071,855 619.1% Bluffton 1,201,672 7,415,188 617.1% Greenville 18,940,327 116,337,769 614.2% Lancaster 2,911,462 17,395,918 597.5% Columbia 10,466,816 59,005,549 563.7% Charleston 5,743,749 31,698,177 551.9% Sumter 795,009 4,228,361 531.9% Florence 2,395,952 12,209,855 509.6% Cherokee 2,197,220 11,153,016 507.6% Greenwood 5,399,356 27,274,291 505.1% Calhoun 2,461,166 11,315,133 459.7%

Keep in mind the numbers are for Verizon customers only, so there's all kinds of caveats that make this unscientific. But any way you look at it, people love the texts.