January 1, 2005
Tsunami Relief SMS Donations [contd]
In Italy, which has one of the highest rates of mobile phone ownership in the world, operators made a single number available for donations and sent text or voice messages to their customers appealing to them to send one euro, according to the Associated Press.
"Quicker, more spontaneous and less costly than a bank transfer, the millions of small cash payments via mobile phones in Italy amounted to 14 million euros in the first five days after the disaster.
Generosity also spread like wildfire in the Netherlands, where any telephone user could transfer 1.5 euros to a special Asia fund simply by tapping out the word "give" on his or her keypad and sending a text message to the number 2020.
Similar operations were under way in Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.
France Telecom's mobile phone subsidiary Orange said it would put a system in place Monday, enabling customers to send donations to the Red Cross.
Canada - The Vancouver-based iPiPi.conm team extended their support to the global community by donating free SMS text messaging service to anyone in the 12 affected Tsunami regions or anyone trying to reach people in these regions until January 5th, 2005. (cf Smart Mobs).
Related:
-- Roundup of tsunami relief SMS fund raising campaigns around the world
-- Links to all Tsunami/cell phone stories posted in Textually.org.
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