Residents of Greece sent over 100 million text messages (sms) to “13033” to obtain a movement permit during the lockdown, the General Secretariat for Telecommunications and Post said on Monday.
According to data released on the first day Greeks no longer need a movement permit, in the 42 days of lockdown, from March 23 to 6:00 a.m. May 4, people sent a total of 110 million text messages.
The average daily success rate, that means the percentage of messages that had the right structure for the statement of movement permit was at 94.2%. At several days the rate exceeded 99%.
On average, phone line number <13033> served 1,818 sms messages per minute.
At times with highest traffic, 7,500 messages per minute were processed.
The sms service, which was designed and launched in less than 48 hours, received rave reviews, with the OECD describing it as “the best practice for managing exceptional travel”, i.e. movement permit.
The design of the tool to facilitate residents in lockdown to quickly register their home exit, was in collaboration of the General Secretariat for Telecommunications and Posts (GGTT) of the Ministry of Digital Government with telecommunication providers, who were not allowed to store the messages.
It should be noted that an unknown number of people used handwritten permit forms, while those obtaining a working permit had to do it once and using a different form.
Greeks could not help but comment on Twitter the end of <13033> and of movement permit.
Έστειλα αποχαιρετιστήριο μηνυμα στο 13033 και απάντησε 😅😅😅😅καλό καλοκαίρι τα λεμε τον Οκτώβριο 😱😱😱😱
— VikiK (@_Vikaki_) May 3, 2020
“I sent goodbye message to 13033 and it replied have a nice summer, see you in October.”
