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Telegrams have just passed into history in America, following the announcement by Western Union, once the colossus of the industry, that it was discontinuing its telegram service at the end of January. Yet in a sense, the technology pioneered by Samuel Morse has been reborn with a modern twist, in the form of text messages sent between mobile phones. For years, foreigners have wondered why Americans, usually at the vanguard of technological adoption, were so reluctant to embrace texting. But now they have adopted the technology with enthusiasm. What happened?

Americans have finally embraced texting. What took them so long?

TELEGRAMS have just passed into history in America, following the announcement by Western Union, once the colossus of the industry, that it was discontinuing its telegram service at the end of January. Yet in a sense, the technology pioneered by Samuel Morse has been reborn with a modern twist, in the form of text messages sent between mobile phones. For years, foreigners have wondered why Americans, usually at the vanguard of technological adoption, were so reluctant to embrace texting. But now they have adopted the technology with enthusiasm. What happened?

America's apathy towards texting was easy to explain. Voice calls on mobile phones are cheaper than in other countries, which gives cost-conscious users less incentive to send texts instead; several different and incompatible wireless technologies are in use, which made sending messages from one network to another unreliable or impossible; and texting was often an additional service that subscribers had to sign up for. As a result, the number of messages sent per subscriber per month was just over seven in December 2002, compared with a global average of around 30.

But things have since changed, with that figure rising to 13 in December 2003, 26 in December 2004, and 38 in June 2005, the most recent date for which figures are available from the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, an industry body. So America has now overtaken Germany, Italy and France in its enthusiasm for texting.

There are several reasons for this. "We've had that penetration of the youth market," says Brian Modoff, an analyst at Deutsche Bank. "We didn't have that until a couple of years ago." Family calling plans and other new tariffs have put phones in the hands of more young people, who are more likely to adopt texting. There have also been technical changes: GSM, the text-friendly wireless technology used in Europe, has become far more widespread in America as operators have switched customers to it from older technologies, notes John Tysoe of The Mobile World, a consultancy. Interconnections between networks have improved too.

But perhaps the most surprising factor is the role of reality television--and in particular, "American Idol", a talent show in which viewers phone in to vote for competing singers. In 2004, 13.5m viewers cast votes by text message--nearly half of them using the technology for the first time. Last year the number of votes was 41.5m. "That upward arc is a fair indicator for the acceleration in growth of texting in general," says Mark Siegel of Cingular, America's biggest mobile operator. Even when viewers do not vote by text themselves, such programmes raise awareness of texting in general, says Mr Modoff. Whatever you think about the music, "American Idol" has undoubtedly helped Americans to discover a valuable new talent.