The mobile phone firm, which managed the technology for the texting competition, reported that as of midnight on June 12, 2,060,285 entries had been received for tickets to the July 2 concert at Hyde Park in London, raising around 拢3m for Live 8, which has been organised by Bob Geldof to raise awareness of global poverty.
O2 said that the nearest comparable campaigns where all the UK mobile operators united were: the tsunami appeal, which saw a total of 726,875 messages donating 拢1.50 each to the Disasters Emergency Committee's fundraising appeal between January 1 and February 26; and Celebrity Fame Academy 2005, which generated 900,000 votes each of which donated 15p for Comic Relief on Red Nose Day 2005.
Because the London Party in the Park has been cancelled this year to allow Live 8 to take place, the first 拢1.6m raised from the text competition will be donated to the Prince's Trust, which is sharing a proportion of the money with Help a London Child.
The remainder will go towards the costs of staging the Live 8 event at Hyde Park, which will feature stars including Madonna, U2 and Pink Floyd, who are reforming especially for the event. Any further money will be distributed to Live 8's charity partners.
On average, each person sent 1.62 texts. The successful applicants will be notified by a text message sent out on Wednesday, giving them a unique identification number, and directing them to the Live 8 .
A spokesperson for O2 said: "We are delighted to help Live 8 allocate tickets to this amazing concert and lend our support and expertise in mobile and texting to make this happen. This activity builds on our successful music sponsorship portfolio and allows us to demonstrate mobile technology on a world-famous platform."
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