Aussies answer Brits text googlies

AQA 63336 recruits Australians to help answer British late night text queries

London, 24th November 2006 – With England struggling in the Ashes it's good to know that AQA 63336 (Any Question Answered) - a text service where Brits can text 63336 with a question from anywhere in the world and get an answer within minutes for £1 - has been recruiting Australians to cope with demand for late night help.

During the past six months, AQA has doubled its overnight workforce to deal with an increasing volume of questions and now has over 40 skilled Australian researchers for late night queries.

"AQA gets thousands of questions between midnight and six am. With our Antipodean researchers we're in a unique position to now answer questions from Brits abroad following the England cricket team, as well as answer questions from the UK such as 'where can I get a kebab at 3am' and 'please find me a taxi'," said Paul Cockerton, Marketing Director of IssueBits, the provider of the AQA service.

It is estimated that over 40,000 Brits have travelled to Australia to watch the cricket and AQA has already been helping out customers with last minute hotels, flight changes, and Australian to English 'translations'. Last year, AQA answered a question on cricket every 5 mins during the Ashes.

UK mobile phone owners can text AQA on 63336 from anywhere in the world, and get an answer in minutes. AQA is offering new customers a free first question here.

Notes for editors

For more information contact:

Donald Parish donald.parish@shinecom.com
Shine Communications Tel: +442071007100

1. Recent Australian questions

Q. What is the australian animal the galar?
A. The galah is a common Australian cockatoo, not renowned for its intelligence. 'Flamin Galah' is a derogatory slang term meaning fool or simpleton.

Q. Can you tell me, does the water spin the other way round when it drains in Australia ?
A. Water actually drains in either direction wherever you are. It's an urban myth that it's different in each hemisphere. You can easily test this yourself.

Q. Why are we called poms?
A. The vast majority of immigrants to Australia were initially British hence pom, short for pomegranate, rhyming slang for immigrant.

2. Recent cricket questions

Q. Can you be sent off in cricket
A. Yes. England's Len Hutton is the only cricketer to be dismissed for obstructing the field of play. It happened against South Africa in August 1951.

Q. Where does the name ashes come from?
A. The Ashes test cricket series is named after the trophy, which is a small wooden urn said to contain the burnt bails from an 1882 game at The Oval.

Q. Who sang i dont like cricket?
A. 10cc sang the song with the lyric 'I don't like cricket'. It is actually called 'Dreadlock Holiday' and was released Aug 1978, reaching No. 1 in the UK.

3. General facts about AQA

• AQA answers over 12,000 text questions a day
• IssueBits has over 650 researchers who answer the questions, all working from home.
• The AQA service was launched in April 2004
• To use AQA, UK phone users text questions to 63336 (£1 per question), Ireland phone users text 57275 (€2).
• 'The end of the question mark' book, a collection of the best Q&A received by AQA, is on sale now. You can buy a copy here.