Some more weird texts sent to my public mobile number by moronic members of the planet’s poluation this morning:
Hi its Emma Bolton could someone ring me bk as u keep taking money off me 4 them that i havent had
Ooookay.
Here’s another:
Could u sms me
and, from the same number 3 hours later:
just an amusement
Weirdos.
This one has to be a wind-up — or from a rugby player:
I’m in love with a hooker. Can I have some free phones?
A hooker? Or a line-back? Or a prop?
You’ve heard of these stupid text competitions, right? American radio stations absolutely love them.
They dangle some sort of celebrity visit to whatever school manages to text in the most votes.
There’s no skill involved. You just have to be celebrity obsessed enough to get your fellow students to text your school name (or similar) to the radio station shortcode.
571,795 texts were sent by Pleasant View High School students in Utah. (“UTAH SAINTS, UH UH UH UH-TAH SAINTS,” anyone?)
[Insert obligatory Jessica Simpson picture]
In other years I would have been very impressed at what this says about the medium of text in America. It’s well and truly integrated into teenage life there.
However I have to wonder at the boring, repetitive nature of these competitions.
Pleasant View Elementary has 601 students. Isn’t Google useful? By the way, I can also tell you that this morning (PDF link!), the students of Pleasant View are eating a Choice of Cereal, Fruit or Fruit Juice, Toast & Jelly (“Jam” I assume), Milk and a ‘k snack yogurt’. Next Wed it’s Pancakes!
Anyway, let’s do the math.
That is 951 texts per student.
I’m not saying it wasn’t worth it to have Jessica parade about your school. She even sat down and had a ‘private visit’ with two of the top texters before ‘fielding questions from students in the gym.’ But how BORING.
Did students simply spend every free moment texting ‘Jessica Pleasant View High School’ (or similar)? Hardly an academic achievement. Indeed it would have probably been far more effective to have had a chat to OpenMarket or MX Telecom and asked them to dump 600,000 text messages into the radio station’s shortcode. At five cents a message, that’d have cost about $28,600. Goodness knows how many messages — in total — were sent into the radio station. Although if they’re able to get a cent-a-message in aggregator revenue share, it could be quite profitable for them.
Whilst on site at the school, Jessica talked about reliance on family, friends and faith to handle the public scrutiny that comes with her fame — so reports Associated Press. I’m sure she also discussed the benefits and critical relevance of her entertainment lawyers, promoters and public relations professionals.
And just in case you’re not sold on Jessica Simpson, I refer you to a comment posted on Jessica’s fan site by user, Kristy:
I’m a fan (and you should be too) because…Jessica has good morals. She has completed all her goals and has worked hard for them. Unlike others like her, she does not need to do anything to improve her career. Overall she is true proof of a real down to earth girl, that knows how to work for what she wants.
UPI reports that the Italian Supreme Court isn’t having any of Telecom Italia’s attempts to fire one of it’s employees.
Apparently the employee knocked up 12,000 private text messages from his work phone. He didn’t have an unlimited messaging package on the handset, obviously — as Telecom Italia were billed more than $2,000 for this.
It was back in the year 2000 though. Almost a decade ago. Between the months of January and October.
So the chap keeps his job, I suspect. I wonder if he’ll still get to keep a work phone?
Vodafone have announced their first pre-pay deal in over two years. Luckily for us pre-pay consumers out there, it sounds like a bloody good offer too.
For just ten pounds per month, users will be entitled to unlimited free evening and weekend texts. Obviously this will be in-accordance to a Fair Use Policy of some nature, but brilliant nonetheless.
Still not happy?
Well topping up thirty pounds a month entitles you to unlimited free texts anytime!
I’ve never taken Vodafone into consideration for anything really, but I have to say, I’m rethinking my plans to join Virgin Mobile. I’m not an avid text’er, but for ten pounds, I can’t go wrong can I?
In addition to this, new and existing Voda-customers will see the peak call price drop ten pence, to 20p.
That’s what I like to hear!
I have to say, in recent weeks all I’ve been reading about Vodafone is good (other than some price changes which weren’t that brilliant), but even so… They definitely seem like the people to go to for customer service, and reliability.
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