3 towns emerge in Vmobile SMS contest

Three new winners emerged in the Vmobile second quarter Short Messaging Service (SMS) contest, which began last year, with two out of the three located in the North East Regions of the country, namely Lessel, Yelwan Duguri and Gelengu.

Lessel, a community in Benue State in North Central Zone of the country with the Town Code 1631 came top in the second quarter phase of the competition followed by Yelwan Duguri, Bauchi State with town code 1070 and Gelengu in Gombe States with town code 1121.

Acting Head, Public Relations at Vmobile, Mr. Emeka Oparah, said the three towns would soon be added to the growing number of the company’s coverage map within 45 days.

Describing it as a success, he note the competition was very keen, especially after the company made it possible for voters to check the voting statistics themselves.

Mr. Oparah explained that the SMS contest was introduced last year under its expansion programme, project Rolling Out Service Everywhere (R.O.S.E) to give Nigerians the opportunity of bringing their communities first into the network’s coverage map more than normal expansion would allow.

This, he said requires those desiring to bring service to their communities to send SMS or text messages to the short code 39800.

Maintaining that it is open to both Vmobile subscribers and customers on other networks.
Stressing that to vote, Vmobile subscribers both pre-paid and post paid subscribers, could send SMS with the selected town code to 39800. Participants could influence others to vote by sending SMS with the referred person’s number and town code to 39800.

Contributors could, according to him vote as many times as they wish, just as, voters could refer as many people as they want too.

For the subscribers on other networks, he said that could participate by sending the code of their choice town by SMS to 0802 100 1000.

A comprehensive list of town codes and short codes for the competition is available in leaflets, Vmobile maps, brochure and posters in dealers’ outlets and Vmobile offices nationwide.
The top 10 voters will receive one free handset each.

To track the voting statistics, Mr. Oparah further said phone users could send SMS 39800 for Vmobile subscribers and 0802 100 1000 for customers on other networks, using the format: STAT (space) town name or code send as text to 39800 (Vmobile subscribers) or 0802 100 1000 indicating that he or she is non-Vmobile subscribers.

Vmobile, he said, plans to invest a minimum of USD 2,000 billion over the next 24 months in achieving nationwide network coverage and excellent quality of Service under its Project R.O.S.E. programme.

During the period, over 3,000 base stations will be deployed across the country and a transmission backbone constructed as well.