News 2005
Text donations raise over £1 million for the DEC Tsunami Appeal
25/01/2005
London. 25 January 2005. Customers of the UK's major mobile phone networks have raised over one million pounds so far for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) tsunami appeal fund.
Operators joined forces for the first time to create a no-fee donation mechanism. In conjunction with aggregator WIN plc, the networks have made it possible for UK mobile phone owners to make a donation by texting the word "DONATE" to 83321 with the full amount donated to charity.
The mechanism has since been promoted principally by Radio Aid, which was held by UK commercial radio stations on Monday 17 January.
Customers of 3, Fresh, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Tesco Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone can text "DONATE" to 83321 so that £1.50 is added to their bill or deducted from their credit. All money is donated to the DEC with no charges applied. Customers can donate via the 83321 shortcode until 31 March 2005.
The DEC has raised over £200 million in donations in total and member agencies will continue to work together. Their priority now is to ensure that money is moving to where it is needed most, in support of co-ordinated action with national governments and the United Nations. The DEC unites the leading independent humanitarian agencies in their efforts to maximise income from the British public to mount an effective humanitarian response to major disasters overseas. Members of the DEC are: ActionAid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, CARE International UK, Christian Aid, Concern, Help the Aged, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund, and World Vision.
Brendon Gormley, Chief Executive at DEC, said: "Text has proven to be a straightforward and accessible way to demonstrate support for Tsunami aid relief we are immensely grateful for this huge effort by a new group of donors."
For more information please call:
Steven Day, Virgin Mobile – 07931 777 777
Notes to Editors:
3
Hutchison 3G UK Limited deliver third-generation mobile multimedia and communications services under the 3 brand in the UK, offering a convergence of media, information and telephony to enable live video calls, multimedia content and entertainment while on the move.
3 services are available from sister companies in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy and Sweden. 3 also holds UMTS licences in Ireland, Israel and Norway.
For further information, please visit: www.three.co.uk or call the 3 Media Office on 0207 350 5696.
Three facts about 3:
- 3 is the UK's first video mobile network.
- 3 is the UK's fastest growing mobile network. Over 2.5 million customers in the UK now have access to 3's range of 3G services, from video messaging and video calling to watching full-length music videos and goals from Barclays Premiership football.
- 3's network offers national coverage for calls and texts, and over 80% coverage for video services.
O2
mmO2 has 100% ownership of mobile network operators in three countries - the UK, Germany and Ireland - as well as leading mobile Internet portal business. All of these businesses are branded as O2. Additionally, the company has operations on the Isle of Man (Manx Telecom) and owns O2 Airwave - an advanced, digital emergency communications service.
mmO2 was the first company in the world to launch and rollout a commercial GPRS (or 2.5G) network and has secured third generation mobile telephony ("3G") licences in the UK, Ireland and Germany.
mmO2 has more than 20 million customers and some 13,000 employees. It reported revenues for the year ended 31 March 2003 of £4.874 billion. Data represented 20.9% of total service revenues in the quarter ending 30 December 2003.
Orange
Orange and wirefree and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange PCS. The Orange group is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies and a subsidiary of the France Telecom group, with operations in 16 countries across Europe and beyond. It provides a broad range of personal communications services, including Orange GSM1800 services and other digital cellular telephone services. Within the Orange Group, the Orange brand operates in the UK, France, Switzerland, Romania, Slovakia, Thailand, the Ivory Coast, the Dominican Republic, Cameroon, the Netherlands, Botswana, and Madagascar. The Orange group also has controlled operations in Belgium (Mobistar). The Orange group has a joint controlling interest in Egypt (MobiNil) and minority interests in Portugal (Optimus) and Austria (One). As at the end of September 2004, Orange was the largest mobile operator in both the UK with 13.9 million active customers, and France with 20.6 million registered customers. As at the end of September 2004, Orange controlled companies had over 52 million customers worldwide. Orange, along with TIM, Telefonica and T-Mobile, is a founding member of the FreeMove alliance. Further information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at
www.orange.com.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International is one of the world's leading companies in mobile communications. By Q3 of 2004, more than 109 million people were using the mobile communications services provided by companies in which T-Mobile or Deutsche Telekom have a majority or minority stake. And all that over a common technology platform based on GSM, the world's most successful digital wireless standard. This also makes T-Mobile the only mobile communications provider with a seamless transatlantic service.
T-Mobile UK, the fastest growing UK network, currently has 15.2 million customers. Its UK network covers over 99% of the UK population and currently offers roaming on 370 networks in 163 countries, including the USA. T-Mobile UK has 1,900 Wi-Fi locations, giving customers the largest UK Wi-Fi network as well as the largest network in Europe and the USA.
www.t-mobile.co.uk.
Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) plc, the UK's largest mobile virtual network operator, is majority owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and uses T-Mobile's network. Since its launch in November 1999, Virgin Mobile has attracted more than 4.6 million customers.
In the UK, Virgin Mobile phones are available direct on 0845 6000 600; on the web at www.virginmobile.com or on the High Street at approximately 5,000 outlets including Virgin Mobile Specialist Stores, Virgin Megastores, Sainsbury, Tesco, Safeway, Asda, John Lewis, Littlewoods, Argos, The Link, Dixons, Carphone Warehouse, Curry's, Comet, Phones 4 U, TOMO, Woolworths, Toys R Us and Rymans.
Virgin Mobile employs approximately 1,400 staff at three sites, Trowbridge, London and Daventry, and has an outsourced customer service centre operated by approximately 200 staff in Middlesbrough. It has been voted one of the top 50 places to work in Britain for two years running in an annual Financial Times survey.
Virgin Mobile's customers are considered the most satisfied in the pre-pay sector according to a recent UK survey by market researchers JD Power and Associates.
Vodafone
Vodafone UK's participation in the text donation scheme is a separate initiative from Vodafone Group's announcement (30/12/04) of a £1million donation to the Asian Tsunami disaster. Vodafone UK has 14.6 million customers and is part of the world's largest mobile community. The Newbury-based company offers a wide range of mobile voice and data communications. The Vodafone UK network covers 99% of the population and transmits over 17.5 million text messages every day. Vodafone UK was the world's first mobile operator to introduce, texing, pre-pay phones and international roaming, and currently customers can use their phones on 400 networks in 169 countries. In May 2004, Vodafone UK was ranked top for customer satisfaction in the UK's contract mobile phone sector in a survey by JD Power and Associates.
