Electing Norway´s nimblest

 (Telenor, Fornebu, 21 October 2010) On Saturday, 23 October Telekiosken,
Telenor and Samsung are arranging the qualification round for the Norwegian
Championships in SMS messaging at shopping centres all over Norway. The event
produced a Norwegian world record-holder last year. Practice makes perfect - in
2009 we sent more than 6.5 billion SMS messages in Norway.

The Norwegian Championships in SMS messaging has become a major success. Last
year, Sonja Kristiansen (23) of Stavanger messaged herself into the record books
when she beat the world record during the Norwegian Championship finals.

"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." This is the official SMS text containing 160 characters which the
Norwegian Championship participants must type in within the shortest possible
time. Kristiansen´s world record stands at 37.28 seconds.

It looks like it will be an exciting qualifying round. As the holder of the
championship Kristiansen is pre-qualified for the final, but she is not taking
anything for granted. "One of last year´s finalists was typing around 37 seconds
in a number of training trials before the final; it was nerves that failed when
it counted most. All the same, I hope that I can defend the title, and if all
goes well maybe even beat my own world record, " says Sonja Kristiansen.

Still popular
SMS is an extremely popular method of communication - 6,518,000,000 text
messages were sent in Norway in 2009. The traffic levels in Telenor´s network
are around 11 million messages per day, 79 million per week and 320 million per
month.

"The use of SMS is stable and is here to stay, even though it will take on other
forms using new technology. Text messaging is highly integrated in society and
influences even the way in which we write and speak, " says Svein Henning
Kirkeng, Director of Consumer Markets at Telenor.

NOK 25,000 for the world record
The qualification rounds for the Norwegian Championships in SMS is split into
six regions, including Eastern Norway, Oslo/Akershus, Southern Norway, Central
Norway and Northern Norway. The quickest in each region goes through to the
final to be held in Oslo City on 13 November. The Norwegian champion gets NOK
10,000 and a year´s worth of free monthly subscription fees on the SuperSim XL
from Telenor. All the finalists get a top of the range Samsung Galaxy S and 6
months free monthly subscription on the SuperSim XL from Telenor. The person who
beats the world record gets an additional NOK 25,000.

"Norwegians are enthusiastic about texting, and we believe that a number of them
can rise to the challenge. Naturally, we hope to mobilise as many participants
as possible throughout Norway, and we are keen to see which region puts forward
the winner this year, " says Event Manager Glenn Mørk of Telekiosken.

Key facts about the Norwegian Championship in SMS
Organiser: Telekiosken
Collaborative partners: Telenor and Samsung
Qualification: Saturday, 23 October
Place: Shopping centres throughout Norway
Finals: Saturday, 13 November at Oslo City
Rules: The mobile phone must have a standard keypad and dictionary switched off.

For the editor:
For more information about the competition, high resolution downloads and to see
a video recording of the Norwegian Championship in SMS please visitwww.nmsms.no.
The recording is also available on YouTube if you would like to publish it
online: http://www.youtube.com/nmsms2010. If you have any questions please
contact Rune Braathen in JPR: [e-mail] or telephone [phone].

For further information, please contact:

Anders Krokan, Information Manager at Telenor, ([phone],
[e-mail].

Glenn Mørk, Event Manager at Telekiosken, ([phone],
[e-mail].

[HUG#1453885]

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