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ONE OF THE JOURNALISTS: Yulechka, do not worry, we are here with you.
JULIA GORODETSKAYA (journalist): It is too late to be afraid.
Just a couple of seconds before dive.
My colleagues are waiting,
even dolphins are waiting for that to happen--it seems.
I have no turning back --
scuba equipment, mobile phone, and "to the fight"
to a depth of 6 meters.
The experiment of sending a message to Twitter from under water
was initiated by Kyivstar.
The national mobile operator has also found
a volunteer journalist for the task -- me,
the one who dared to dive and send the message across.
Twitter is used by millions of earthlings,
it even has been tweeted from space,
but from under the water -- no.
In any case, there have been no real underwater tweets documented thus far.
[ life footage of underwater tweeting ]
First time in life to be under water
is not easy--to navigate, to move,
not to speak of sending messages.
Ears are smothered;
wetsuit compresses the body;
movement constrained by fear.
But it is well worth to stand the test.
JULIA: I dived (for the first time) and I thought:
My God, I think I will now wind up everything and go home.
But then a man is the king of nature. True?
To cut a long story short, I have promised...
plus such a great experiment
thanks a lot to Kyivstar that gave me an opportunity to dive,
and, of course, thanks very much to the guys [gracefully glancing at diving instructors]
because if they had not helped me,
nothing would have happened.
They have very sensitively and competently instructed me.
An "O" rolled into a "bagle" of the thumb and index finger -- everything is okay.
The wave is illustrated with hand -- there is a problem.
Thumb facing up -- then it's time to emerge.
Sending a tweet underwater takes about 10 minutes
then "okay" and "up to the surface".
Tweet "This is the first #underwater_tweet"
appears in my account in several minutes,
but my phone (Twitter’s web interface on Opera Mini) says that the tweet has been posted.
BORIS KHODORKOVSKY @netocrat: Julia Gorodetskaya --
a girl which dared to this deed.
Let me remind you that Julia does not even know how to swim.
[ journalists' applause in the background ]
Another unusual performance --
an underwater phone call.
The mobile call was made by my instructor,
the famous Odessa diver Vladlen Toback.
My colleagues in turn communicate with him
and state: experiment was a success.
Both actions: sending a message to Twitter, and an underwater call --
a good cause to talk about the quality of Kyivstar’s mobile network --
the organizers of the experiment say.
Quality is the main concern of company's technicians.
By the way, they together with specialists from Underwater Technologies Laboratory "Calipso"
have built the special helmet for underwater communications,
and have made it possible to send tweets from under water.
ALEXANDER DOROFIY, Kyivstar’s Deputy Technical Director: Mobile network monitoring
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year,
and the use of advanced technologies --
all that gives us the opportunity to achieve the quality indicators we are talking about.
Of course, no one is saying that Kyivstar subscribers are now able to call from under water.
It still does not let the radio waves through.
But now the whole country is talking about the underwater tweeting.
The first mention of the event appeared online just several minutes after the underwater tweet,
and in few hours Wikipedia wrote about the experiment.