Cook Remains Fastest Text Messager in the Country
Albuquerque, New Mexico – Ben Cook, 18, of Provo, Utah, defended his "Fastest Text Messager" in the country title, with a time of 47.78 seconds, beating his 2004 world record by nearly 10 seconds, and missing a new Guinness World Record by only 4 seconds at the Tri-State Beat Ben Contest held in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Saturday, July 15, 2006.
Briana Gil, 14, of Tucson, Arizona, beat Ben's 2004 Guinness World Record of 57.75 seconds, earning the Fastest Fingers in West Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico with a time of 54.34 seconds and winning $1,000 and twelve months of Cricket® service including unlimited local and long distance calls, and unlimited text, picture and instant messaging.
Fifteen contestants qualified to attempt to Beat Ben by having the fastest fingers in the preliminary rounds held in Tucson, Arizona, El Paso, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico. In order to set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest text message, finalists had to type the Guinness authorized 160-character passage: "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," on their wireless phone faster than 43.2 seconds Two Cricket judges, both with accurate stopwatches, monitored the finalists. To have a qualifying time, competitors had to type the paragraph the fastest, with no extra spaces and no spelling errors. Finalists were able to use their own wireless phone, but the "short text" and other timesaving features on the cell phone were disabled.
"The Beat Ben finals were fun and competitive, and we were excited to host this great event," said Edye Popke, area general manager for Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Tucson, El Paso, & Las Cruces. "The strong turn out at this event is proof that text messaging has become one of the most popular ways to communicate, especially for Cricket customers, since they can send unlimited messages to any mobile phone."
Offering A Full Suite of Wireless Services
As the pioneer of unlimited anytime minutes with no long term contracts required, Cricket service offers a wireless alternative for those individuals and businesses looking for affordable, flat-rate wireless services. With a Cricket phone, customers can make and receive their calls within their calling area without worrying about an expensive bill at the end of the month. Cricket service is offered at a price that is competitive to that of a traditional home phone, but with Cricket, the customer gains the added benefit of mobility. With Cricket unlimited wireless plans, customers enjoy unlimited picture messaging, unlimited text messaging and AOL® Instant Messenger™, plus calling features including voicemail, caller ID and call waiting.
In addition to providing unlimited local and long distance wireless voice services over a high-quality CDMA 1X network, Cricket service offers a variety of add-on services for customers including a Travel Time&trade roaming option for customers who wish to use their phone outside their calling area, as well as Cricket Clicks™ – Cricket's data service, which includes downloadable games, ringtones, wallpapers, information services and more. Cricket customers also have the option of placing international long distance (ILD) calls to more than 100 countries, including Mexico.
About Cricket®
Cricket is a simple, affordable mobile phone service offering customers and local businesses flat-rate, unlimited service over a high-quality, all-digital wireless network. Designed for customers under-served by traditional communications companies, Cricket is the pioneer of unlimited minutes with no long-term commitments or credit checks required. Cricket offers customers access to a variety of the latest handsets and feature-rich mobile applications such as unlimited text, instant and picture messaging, popular games, ringtones and wallpapers. For more information on Cricket visit www.mycricket.com. Cricket is offered by Leap Wireless International, Inc., Alaska Native Broadband 1 License, LLC and LCW Wireless, LLC. For more information on Leap, visit www.leapwireless.com.
