SMS decoding guide

What some of you know as "texting" is called "SMS-ing" in Botswana. "SMS" stands for "short message service." What you may not know is the lengths to which people will go to abbreviate their SMS's.

Cell phones are very popular in Botswana. Landlines are difficult and expensive to install, and the installation process, from what I've gathered, is not generally accomplished expediently. While some cell phone companies offered pre-paid contracts, they all seem to offer the more popular pay-as-you-go option, whereby one purchases a phone and a SIM card, and purchases units of airtime as needed. Networks sell units by means of scratch cards, which are available for purchase in a range of denominations, from P10 cards to P100 cards (that come with a P20 bonus).

SMS-ing is popular because it tends to be cheaper than calling, and therefore one uses one's store of minutes more slowly. But, since one is charged by the length of one's message, this urge to conserve units also leads some people to configure their written messages so as to use as few letters as possible. I've become accustomed to the rather predictable "b4" and "2morrow," the "r u there?" and "c u later."

Yesterday, however, I received a message that, at first glance, threw me for a loop. It read:

Ok. No prblm. U wl let me knw wen u r free nd c f m fre.

Admittedly, I was driving when I glanced at this, and it looked like a jumble of letters. Given a few moments to study it, it became clear that the author meant: "OK, no problem. You will let me know when you are free and see if I'm free." The fascinating part is how many letters one can let fall out of any given sentence and still get the point across.