Noel Davis doesn’t spend much time chatting on the phone, but her text messaging habit cost her more than $800 in monthly overages.Like Davis, the typical U.S. mobile subscriber now sends and receives more text messages than telephone calls.The average number of text messages a subscriber sends or receives surpassed the number of telephone calls for the first time in 2008. More than 1.8 billion people worldwide communicate through text messages today.The average person sends or receives 357 text messages per month, compared to placing or receiving 204 phone calls, according to Nielsen Mobile.”People are so busy nowadays, and they’re looking for new ways to communicate,” said Gretchen LeJune, Verizon Wireless spokeswoman for the Houston Gulf Coast region.LeJune said text messaging is a fast and reliable way to communicate, which is becoming more appealing to subscribers.”You can respond to a quick text message, regardless of what you’re doing,” she said. “It doesn’t intrude in people’s lives.”The number of calls has remained steady over recent years, but the number of text messages has increased 450 percent from just two years ago.Users 13 to 17 years old send on average more than 1,700 text messages monthly, and those ages 18 to 24 send almost 800, according to Nielsen Mobile. Even adults over the age of 50 send at least 100 messages a month.With text messaging becoming more common, LeJune said phone companies have seen a significant demand for text messaging plans.”The trend is going toward more bundled packages,” she said. “And we have seen increases in the purchases of those packages, as well as different age groups adapting to texting and using it.”LeJune said Verizon Wireless now offers Wireless 101 classes for adults to learn how to send text messages.”A lot of them want to learn how to text so they can text their grandchildren,” she said. “It’s reaching a whole new generation.”Full keyboard devices have increased in popularity and are driving text message growth, said Sue Sperry, AT&T spokeswoman.Smart phones, or those with full keyboards, generate 122 percent more text messages than standard wireless phones, she said. More handset manufactures are introducing phones with full keyboards to address the “texting boom.”Jessica Walker, English senior, said she sends about 15 text messages a daily.”It’s much quicker with a full keyboard, and it makes me [type] with better grammar,” she said.—-Contact Leslie Presnall at [email protected]