GSM Association Unveils Text Auction For UNICEF

Tickets to the hottest sports and entertainment events of 2006 and rare signed memorabilia on offer now — bid to make a difference!

London, 30 January 2006: The GSM Association has, through generous pledges from its members and partners, assembled an extraordinary collection of tickets to some of the most spectacular sports and entertainment events of 2006, along with signed memorabilia and state of the art technology gadgets, for a special text message charity auction in aid of UNICEF.

The GSMA, the global trade association for the mobile industry, begins the sale of the collection on-line today, with many of the items on display at the forthcoming 3GSM World Congress*, (Barcelona, February 13-16th 2006), the global mobile industry’s annual gathering.

Among the auction lots for 2006 are tickets to the MTV Europe Music Awards, the Football World Cup Quarter Finals; the Wimbledon Tennis Men’s Singles Final; the Ryder Cup Golf Tournament; the Champion’s League Final; and the Cannes Film Festival, among many other items.**

The auction, which is sponsored by Vodafone, includes more than 30 lots offered for bids by text message, with additional selected lots reserved for a special silent auction at the GSM’s Awards night dinner at the National Palace in Barcelona on Tuesday 14th February. The text message auction is open for bidding today at www.gsmworld.com/auction and closes on 23rd February at 1.00pm GMT.

“The GSMA is delighted to announce our 2006 Auction to support UNICEF’s emergency programmes – providing critical aid in the aftermath of humanitarian, natural and man-made disasters,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Marketing Officer of the GSMA. “With the extraordinary generosity of so many of our members and partners, we have again put together some very rare items, including many exclusive VIP packages that simply cannot be obtained anywhere else.”

“We are delighted that the GSMA has chosen to raise funds for UNICEF’s emergency programmes at this year’s 3GSM World Congress,” said David Bull, Executive Director at UNICEF UK. “The auction will raise vital funds helping provide life-saving support, care and protection to some of the world’s most vulnerable children. GSM’s generosity will help UNICEF ensure children affected by emergencies have access to their basic needs. Last year, the auction raised 100,000 euros for UNICEF’s End Child Exploitation campaign. We greatly value GSM’s continued support for UNICEF and we look forward to working together again this year and on future projects.”

The GSMA is grateful to the generous support of the following organisations for contributing pledges and providing services to support the 2006 auction:

Accenture, Bayham Systems, CNBC Europe, Ericsson, Fortune Magazine, Intel, Lucent, Manchester United, Microsoft, Motorola, MTV Europe, Netsize, Nokia, O2, Orange, Samsung, SFR, Sony Ericsson, Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile, Turkcell, UNICEF, Variety Magazine, VimpelCom, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.

The GSMA held the world’s first international auction by text message at the 3GSM World Congress last year, raising a €100,000 donation for UNICEF.