Radio 1212 collects 227.258 EUR via SMS 4666
Brussels, january 25, 2010

Radio 1212, the joint action of the Flemish radio stations Joe FM, MNM, Q-Music, Radio2 and Studio Brussel, has marked a historical record in mobile fundraising in Belgium. On Friday January 22nd 2010, between 8h00 and 20h00, exactly 227.258 SMS have been sent to the shortcode 4666, equaling as many euros for the victims of Haiti. SMS 4666 is a joint initiative of MobileWeb and the mobile operators BASE, Mobistar and Proximus.

Following the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, SMS solutions provider MobileWeb.be collaborated with the mobile operators KPN Belgium/BASE, Mobistar and Proximus to set up the SMS shortcode 4666. Every message sent to 4666 costs 1 euro, which is entirely funded to the participating humanitarian organisations.
These NGO's can also reserve their own keyword on the 4666, allowing them to raise funds via SMS. All messages containing the keyword 'SOS' or 'HAITI' are funded to the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders uses the keywords 'AZG' and 'MSF', while the Consortium 1212 asks their members to send '1212' to 4666 to add funds to Haiti Lavi.

On January 22nd, 5 Flemish radio stations joined forces and broadcasted live from the Groenplaats, Antwerp under the name Radio 1212. For 12 straight hours, different duos of radio presenters put the focus on Haïti and encouraged the listeners to donate via SMS 4666. A web interface, developed by MobileWeb, allowed the presenters to follow the SMS flow in real time and to read out loud certain messages. The system smoothly handled the massive amount of text messages, which mounted up to a total of 227.258 by Friday 20h00. The peak moment was between 13h00 and 14h00, when no less than 27.000 SMS messages were received in one hour.

The 'SMS 4666' action continues until January 31st, 2010. MobileWeb and the operators have committed their full engagement for this action, allowing to fund every euro entirely to the participating non-profit organisations.

More info on this action can be found on www.sms4666.be.