Canadians Warned to Brace for Text Blizzard

    Virgin Mobile Canada forecasts 200 million text messages this Xmas Day
    and NYE

    TORONTO, Dec. 18 /CNW/ - Snow joke. Canada's love affair with text
messages is set to snowball this Christmas into a record breaking 200 million
text messages over Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, predicts Virgin Mobile
Canada.
    From 'Happy Holidays' to 'Ho!Ho!Ho!', Canada's skies won't just be filled
with snow, snow, snow, but with millions of text messages flying across the
country.
    A huge rise in text messages being sent internationally by Canadians to
loved ones in countries such as China, England, Italy and Portugal is also
expected to help break last year's record of an estimated 100 million texts
sent by Canadians on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, according to Virgin
Mobile Canada's text team.
    One of the main reasons for the growth in texting this year, according to
Virgin Mobile Canada, is the growing popularity of phones designed for text,
such as the LG Rumour with its full QWERTY keyboard so you can type text
messages in record time!
    "Virgin Mobile predicts a record breaking text Christmas," says Chris
Baines, Virgin Mobile's Textpert. "With an astonishing 100 million text
messages expected to be sent on Christmas Day and another 100 million on New
Year's Eve, we are predicting a very texty Christmas for Canada."
    Virgin Mobile's top five text messages for the holiday season are "hpE nu
yr", "kiss ya l8r xoxo", "I gotta bag of gifts 4 u", "W84me@mistletoe", and
"xo@midnit?".
    Let's talk about text. Here are some more facts and figures:

    -  On an average day Canadians send around 54.1 million text messages -
       on Christmas Day and New Year's Day Virgin Mobile expects this figure
       to double

    -  A staggering 1.6 billion text messages are sent on average each month

    -  Textaholics aged 18-30 will be the biggest texters this holiday
       season, sending an average of 4 text messages each

    About Virgin Mobile Canada

    The Virgin Mobile group of companies has attracted more than 10 million
customers worldwide. As the No.1 mobile youth network, Virgin Mobile Canada's
mission is to connect, entertain, and reward like nobody else. Its simpler,
better deals offers customers control, flexibility, and choice to design
mobile packages that truly works for them. J.D. Power and Associates ranked
Virgin Mobile highest in customer satisfaction with prepaid wireless service,
for four years in a row(1), 91% of customers would recommend Virgin Mobile to
a friend, and a 2007 independent survey confirmed that Virgin Mobile has the
happiest customers of any of the national cell phone companies in Canada.
    Virgin Mobile phones are available at more than 4,000 locations with
top-up cards available at more than 10,000 locations nationally. Virgin Mobile
products can also be purchased online at http://www.virginmobile.ca or by
calling 1-888-999-2321.

For further information: call, email or better still text us! Erica
Faltous, Hill & Knowlton Canada, (416) 413-4695, (416) 400-0171,
erica.faltous@hillandknowlton.ca; Chris Baines, Virgin Mobile Canada, (416)
607-8412, (416) 556-3000, chris.baines@virginmobile.ca