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Archive for the 'earthquake' Tag

Free calls to Haiti, where to watch benefit concert

January 22nd, 2010, 5:13 pm by

Hope for Haiti NowWith all the rain in Orange County this week, it’s hard to believe that the devastating earthquake in Haiti was just last week.  Donations continued to pour in this week via text messages, plus there’s tonight’s “Hope for Haiti Now” benefit concert for the country.

Here’s a round up of what local TV and wireless services are doing:

Cox Communications: Waiving fees on international long-distance calls to Haiti (country code 509) through Feb. 28. This is retroactive to Jan. 12. The Cox Foundation also donated $250,000 to relief efforts. See press release.

Time Warner Cable: Waiving fees on international long-distance calls to Haiti through end of February, retroactive to Jan. 12. This applies only to direct-dial calls and not calls made through an operator. See press release.

AT&T: Waived fees on calls to Haiti numbers. Also letting customers watch  tonight’s “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon on their phones, U-verse TV or web. To watch on a phone, go to AT&T Mobile TV on MTV’s MediaFlo channel. U-verse subscribers can tune in to the major networks and MTV for the performance. Online, the event will be streamed at entertainment.att.net. Wireless customers can also donate $10 to Red Cross International Relief Fund by texting the word “HAITI” to 90999.

Sprint: Waiving texting fees to Haiti through Jan. 31. Customers donated $3.1 million to the effort, as of Jan. 19, by texting “HAITI” to 90999.

T-Mobile: Waiving international long-distance fees through Jan. 31 and dropping fee to text “HAITI” at 90999 to donate $10. Customers donated $3 million, as of Jan. 19. T-Mobile and its parent company have  also donated $250,000 to the effort.

Verizon: Waiving international long-distance calling fees plus offering a live broadcast of the relief concert to mobile users who have access to VCAST Video on their phones. See press release. Verizon users can also text the word “HAITI” to 90999. So far, the company has collected $4.84 million in text donations. Verizon also has a page dedicated to the Haiti relief effort with information on several organizations accepting donations. Click HERE.

Tonight’s benefit concert includes singers Madonna, Jay-Z, George Clooney and Haiti native Wyclef Jean. It airs at 8 p.m. tonight on the following channels:

ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television and MuchMusic.

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Are AT&T subscribers the most generous?

January 14th, 2010, 5:33 pm by

Earthquake in HaitiInteresting note: By simply texting the word “HAITI” to #90999, mobile phone customers everywhere donated $5.2 million to the Red Cross International Haiti earthquake relief effort. That’s in the past 24 hours, according to data from data obtained by AT&T from  mGive, a mobile donation site.

AT&T just let me know that of that amount, its own subscribers donated $2.63 million or half of the total.

Not that anyone is counting…

Sprint also announced that its subscribers have donated $882,000 to the relief effort. Sprint added that the money can be donated to more than just the Red Cross:

  • Text “HAITI” to “90999” to donate $10 on behalf of the American Red Cross.
  • Text “YELE” to “501501” to donate $5 on behalf of The Yéle Haiti Foundation.
  • Text “HAITI” to “20222” to donate $10 on behalf of The William J. Clinton Foundation.
  • Text “HAITI” to “85944” to donate $10 on behalf of the Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International.
  • Text “HAITI” to “25383” to donate $5 on behalf of the Internal Rescue Committee.

Every mobile carrier has jumped into the game, telling subscribers that they too can donate $10 to the Red Cross. Some still charge for the actual text, but T-Mobile said it is waiving texting fees. The donation is charged to a user’s cell phone bill.

See earlier story:

Posted in: Cell phones • news • • • • • • • • • • | 4 Comments »

Donate to Haiti earthquake relief effort by texting

January 13th, 2010, 3:49 pm by

Earthquake in Haiti

UPDATE, Jan. 14, 2009: T-Mobile is also waiving international long-distance charges on calls to Haiti through Jan. 31. Customers in Haiti using roaming partner Voila and Digicel will also have charges waived. T-Mobile also is waiving fees to text a donation (see below) to help relief efforts.

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At least two groups are accepting donations via text to support the Haiti relief effort after today’s earthquake.

By texting the word “HAITI” to 90999, $10 will be donated to Red Cross International Relief. One hundred percent of the money will be donated to the Red Cross. Standard text messaging rates may apply and the $10 will be charged to your phone bill, AT&T said. (Update: This is true for T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and other wireless carriers as well). Customers will get a confirmation message within minutes and must reply with ‘yes’ to complete the donation.

UPDATE: Here is the White House statement from the White House blog: Thoughts and Prayers for Haiti

Separately, musician and Haiti native Wyclef Jean of The Fugees fame, has set up a fund to help the people of Haiti. By texting “YELE” to 501501, $5 will be donated. You can also donate larger amounts at Yele’s website.

Read more Register coverage of the earthquake:

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Cell phone service back to normal after earthquake

July 29th, 2008, 3:33 pm by

Sprint reported that traffic on its cellular network in the Los Angeles region jumped 800 percent in the moments after today’s earthquake — making it the highest volume ever for this area.

All the companies — Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless — told me calls were way up and congested their systems. However, a lot of traffic was likely caused by people redialing numbers when they couldn’t get through the first time.

I’ve checked with all the local companies and all services seem to be back to normal.

“Our review is complete — we did not lose any cell sites/towers,therefore we did not lose any coverage,” says Ken Muche, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless.

AT&T and T-Mobile also reported no physical damage.

In the future, AT&T recommends that text messaging friends and family for two reasons: Texting uses less bandwidth and it opens up the phone lines for emergency personnel.

For full earthquake coverage, see Earthquake Central and our Breaking News site.

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