One in seven Brits admit to being Valentine ‘text-rats’

Practice Safe Text this Valentine’s Day urges LogicaCMG

[ClickPress, Wed Feb 14 2007] David Beckham has allegedly done it with his former personal assistant. Australian cricketer Shane Warne has been exposed doing it several times with nurses and glamour models. And now one in seven people in Britain have admitted being guilty of sending ‘sexy’ or ‘flirty’ messages to someone other than their partner, according to a report released today from text messaging experts LogicaCMG, which shows the shocking extent of text-cheating across the world.

The global study of more than 8,500 people* shows Brits are amongst the biggest ‘text rats’ in the world, second only to Malaysians. Brits are also the most suspicious – seemingly with good reason – with one in six people checking their partner’s phone for ‘suspicious messages’.

Other findings of the international study include:

Guilty-text: Across the world, Malaysians are the most likely to have guilty-text, with nearly 40 per cent of people sending flirty messages behind their partners' back.

Text-check: Germans are the most text-trusted, with barely 7 per cent of people checking their partner's mobiles.

Text-flirting: Millions of 'Latin lover' Italian men use SMS as their primary tool for wooing lovers. One in ten relationships in Italy started with a text invitation for a first date, and nearly a third started with text-flirting.

Text ditching: Nearly one in ten Singaporeans have used SMS to break up with someone. Germans are the least likely to be text-ditched, while 3 per cent of Brits have been dumped in this way.

SMSweetheart: Men in the Philippines have the easiest Valentine's Day, with more than a third of women preferring a romantic text message to chocolates or a card. Rasputin-style Russian passion seems to have evolved during the past century, with 40 per cent of Russians making do with a text message on Valentine's Day.

Commenting on the findings, Jayne Chace, chief marketing officer, LogicaCMG telecoms said: “We deliver more than half of the world’s text messages and therefore understand the depth of emotion tied up with sending and receiving just a few characters of text. The reaction people have when their phone beeps to signal an incoming message resonates deeply within them, and this brings out the best and worst in people, as we can see in this report.”

“It is clear that wherever you go in the world, texting has become a primary tool for people to get into, and out of, relationships – sometimes without even meaning to,” Jayne Chace added.

The study was conducted in November, 2006 by Ipsos MORI, and surveyed 8,518 consumers in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Russia, Italy, UK and Germany.

About LogicaCMG
LogicaCMG is a major international force in IT services. It employs around 40,000 people across 41 countries. LogicaCMG’s focus is on enabling its customers to build and maintain leadership positions using LogicaCMG’s deep industry knowledge and its track record for successful delivery. The company provides business consulting, systems integration and IT and business process outsourcing across diverse markets including telecoms, financial services, energy and utilities, industry, distribution and transport and the public sector. Headquartered in Europe, LogicaCMG is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and Euronext (Amsterdam) (LSE:LOG; Euronext:LOG) and traded on the Xternal List of the Nordic Exchange in Stockholm. More information is available at www.logicacmg.com/telecoms

Press contacts:
Scott Allen
Global Marketing Director, LogicaCMG Telecoms
Tel: +44 (0)118 965 9200
Email: scott.allen@logicacmg.com

Todd Van Hoosear
Topaz Partners
Tel: + 1 781-404-2409
Email: LogicaCMG@TopazPartners.com

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