Sun Devils Fans Text to the Big Screen

Arizona State University is believed to be the first university to use text message blogging at its football games. At the September 1 home game versus perennial loser Temple, Sun Devil fans were able to text a message that then was posted on the scoreboard at ASU.

According to Verizon Wireless, hundreds of text messages were sent per minute and then displayed on the scoreboard.

This same technology was also recently used by the Back Street Boys and Destiny's Child shows in the Phoenix areas. Green Day is also said to be using it on some of their concert dates.

Major League Baseball has also gotten into the act. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim use text messaging for the thirty minute period prior to the beginning of the game. The Angels report that most of the messages were "I love you's," "hello's," and "will you marry me's." Also in Arizona, the Diamondbacks sponsored trivia games where the fan texted back a reply message to answer the trivia question in an attempt to win a Verizon phone.

Verizon takes heed to make sure there's no inappropriate content that gets by the system.

During the Sun Devils September game versus LSU, Verizon substituted the normally free texting service with one that donated $5 to Hurricane Katrina victims via premium SMS. It is unknown whether Verizon donated its share of the $5 donation to Hurricane Katrina victims too, because the carriers take close to 50% of the revenue generated by premium SMS services.