(Telenor, Fornebu, 21 October 2010) On Saturday, 23 October Telekiosken, Telenor and Samsung are arranging the qualification round for the Norwegian Championships in SMS messaging at shopping centres all over Norway. The event produced a Norwegian world record-holder last year. Practice makes perfect - in 2009 we sent more than 6.5 billion SMS messages in Norway.
The Norwegian Championships in SMS messaging has become a major success. Last year, Sonja Kristiansen (23) of Stavanger messaged herself into the record books when she beat the world record during the Norwegian Championship finals.
"The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human." This is the official SMS text containing 160 characters which the Norwegian Championship participants must type in within the shortest possible time. Kristiansen's world record stands at 37.28 seconds.
It looks like it will be an exciting qualifying round. As the holder of the championship Kristiansen is pre-qualified for the final, but she is not taking anything for granted. "One of last year's finalists was typing around 37 seconds in a number of training trials before the final; it was nerves that failed when it counted most. All the same, I hope that I can defend the title, and if all goes well maybe even beat my own world record," says Sonja Kristiansen.
Still popular
SMS is an extremely popular method of communication - 6,518,000,000 text messages were sent in Norway in 2009. The traffic levels in Telenor's network are around 11 million messages per day, 79 million per week and 320 million per month.
"The use of SMS is stable and is here to stay, even though it will take on other forms using new technology. Text messaging is highly integrated in society and influences even the way in which we write and speak," says Svein Henning Kirkeng, Director of Consumer Markets at Telenor.
NOK 25,000 for the world record
The qualification rounds for the Norwegian Championships in SMS is split into six regions, including Eastern Norway, Oslo/Akershus, Southern Norway, Central Norway and Northern Norway. The quickest in each region goes through to the final to be held in Oslo City on 13 November. The Norwegian champion gets NOK 10,000 and a year's worth of free monthly subscription fees on the SuperSim XL from Telenor. All the finalists get a top of the range Samsung Galaxy S and 6 months free monthly subscription on the SuperSim XL from Telenor. The person who beats the world record gets an additional NOK 25,000.
"Norwegians are enthusiastic about texting, and we believe that a number of them can rise to the challenge. Naturally, we hope to mobilise as many participants as possible throughout Norway, and we are keen to see which region puts forward the winner this year," says Event Manager Glenn Moerk of Telekiosken.
Key facts about the Norwegian Championship in SMS
Organiser: Telekiosken
Collaborative partners: Telenor and Samsung
Qualification: Saturday, 23 October
Place: Shopping centres throughout Norway
Finals: Saturday, 13 November at Oslo City
Rules: The mobile phone must have a standard keypad and dictionary switched off.
For the editor:
For more information about the competition, high resolution downloads and to see a video recording of the Norwegian Championship in SMS please visit www.nmsms.no (http://www.nmsms.no/). The recording is also available on YouTube if you would like to publish it online: http://www.youtube.com/nmsms2010 (http://www.youtube.com/nmsms2010). If you have any questions please contact Rune Braathen in JPR: rune.braathen@jpr.no (mailto:rune.braathen@jpr.no) or telephone 915 64 866.
For further information, please contact:
Anders Krokan, Information Manager at Telenor, (+47) 952 09 037, anders.krokan@telenor.com (mailto:anders.krokan@telenor.com).
Glenn Moerk, Event Manager at Telekiosken, (+47) 414 4 544, glenn.mork@telekiosken.no (mailto:glenn.mork@telekiosken.no).
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