Cricket Names 16-Year Old San Carlos Resident Winner of “San Diego’s Fastest Text Messager” Contest
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – December 19, 2006 - Cricket Communications, Inc., leading provider of unlimited wireless services, today announced that 16-year old Anna Neubauer of San Carlos was the first place winner of its “San Diego’s Fastest Text Messager” competition, held Saturday at the Westfield Mission Valley shopping center.
Cricket wireless, which launched in San Diego on December 6, offers unlimited US long distance and local calling, as well as unlimited text messaging, for one flat rate. To highlight the service’s unlimited text feature, Cricket hosted an open call competition to find the fastest texting fingers in San Diego. Anna Neubauer, a XX at XX high school, beat out nearly 25 competitors to win the title of “San Diego’s Fastest Text Messager.” The young student also won $1,000, a Kyocera phone and one year of Cricket wireless service.
“I came to the mall to do some shopping with my mom and brother,” says Neubauer. “I knew that I was a pretty fast texter, and thought I would try to qualify for the competition.” Neubauer was one of the first qualifiers of the day, putting up the lightening-fast times of one minute, forty-eight seconds on her first try and one minute thirty-seven seconds on her next attempt.
Neubauer had to text a 160-character message using no predicative or spelling-assistant features on her cell phone. The message, which is standard copy provided for text message competitions by the Guinness Book of Records organization, reads, ‘The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are known to be the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality, they seldom attack a human.” To qualify for the competition and move on to the next round, all competitors had to type the message with no errors, including correct spacing, capitalization and punctuation.
“Watching Anna on stage, we knew we had a fierce competitor,” says Fernando Corona, regional vice president of Cricket in San Diego. “To see her do so well right off the bat was really exciting for everyone in the crowd, as well as for her family.”
After several rounds of competition, Neubauer was declared the first place winner, with the best time of one minute twenty-one seconds. Second place winner was 27 year-old MaryAnn Diloy of Paradise Valley, with a time of one minute thirty-five seconds. Third place winner was Sharon Theiseu, 35, of University Heights, who texted the message in one minute thirty-nine seconds.
In addition to winning the ‘Fastest Text Messager’ title, $1,000, a Kyocera phone and one year of Cricket wireless service, Neubauer also had the privilege of competing head to head against Ben Cook, an 18 year-old Cricket customer from Utah who holds the Guinness Book record for ‘America’s Fastest Text Messager.’ Cook can type the 160-character message in approximately 42 seconds, and was in San Diego to reclaim the World title, which was captured by a Singapore woman one month ago. Her claim is still under review by the Guinness Book organization.
“It was very exciting to go up against Ben, even though I knew I probably couldn’t text the message faster than him,” says Neubauer. Cook bested Neubauer, but the 16 year old was still thrilled with her win.
Cook remained on site at the competition, repeatedly texting the Guinness Book message for over one hour. Though he came quite close to beating the current world record, which stands at just under 42 seconds, Cook did not reclaim the title.
“The text message competition was a fun way to get the word out about Cricket’s unlimited talk and text service,” says Corona. “We had a fun day watching all the competitors qualify for the ‘San Diego’s Fastest Text Messager’ title and are just thrilled for all the winners.”
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., headquartered in San Diego, Calif. For more information on Leap, visit www.leapwireless.com.
