Would you last 40 hours on a call? Well, this World Record goes beyond that

So it was technically a battle of wits. The rooms in which the performers were placed were designed to be tempting: pillows, blankets and conversation starters (which they were forbidden from using).

In the long run, I’d say that this was about responding to the question of “How long could we naturally come up with conversation topics through our mind or actual surroundings?”.

Of course, for such an insane duration, they ran out of topics. Which is why the crowd was allowed to suggest topics, but only via body language: the only speech to be heard had to come from Eric and Avery.

This is on our third spot, and I’m already certain that I wouldn’t be able to hold the line as long, especially without sleep.

51 hours

one call, many participants

Our second place award goes to Sunil Prabhakar, who seems to have been on this lengthy conversation through need, rather than want. On 18 September 2009, at 7AM, he called K. K. Agarwal — a hot-shot cardiologist at Moolchand Medicity, New Delhi.

Unlike the call from the last example, however, Sunli’s talked to a lot of people on the other end, without ever needing to re-dial or get called again later. 

This one is a bit mysterious, because we don’t know much beyond this, other than that the call concluded in the early morning of September 20, at about 10AM. Given bits and pieces of the conversation, if I had to do a bit of sleuthing and deduce the situation: I’d say that Mr. Prabhakar was either in urgent need of something or that he was urgently helping someone else.

In either case, I hope that it all concluded well and good. And hey: with this part being so short, it means that we can move right on ahead to the big reveal.

This is your last reminder to make a guess and leave a comment!

56 hours and 4 minutes

the world’s longest phone call

This is it, folks! And it took place in Riga, Latvia. And it seems way, way more intentional than the semi-accidental happenings described above.

In 2012, Tele2 communications and SponsorKing organized some sort of event, where two teams — Kristaps Štãls paired with Patriks Zvaigzne, and Leonids Romanovs participating together with Tatjana Fjodorova — talked, and talked until that 56 hour mark.

At a certain point, Guinness had acknowledged this feat with a World Record, visible on this URL. It, however, no longer leads to an active page. Furthermore, when I try to find out more about this event, I can scarcely find anything online.

As such, I reached out to the Guinness World Records to ask about the status of this entry, and if it is still crowned as the first spot. As of the time of writing, I am yet to receive any response, so it may be wise to take this one with a grain of salt.

Unless you happen to have more info, which if you do: kindly share in the comments or over email, thanks!

 

Two cool world records you should know about!

which are also pretty darn weird!

Now that I had to browse the GWC’s online archives, I couldn’t help but notice two other phone-related entries, which really stood out to me:

• In May 2007, Rob Baber made a phone call from an altitude of 8848 meters, using a Motorola MOTO Z8. And yes: the call took place from the summit of Everest. Rod called Motorola’s voicemail for some reason and he remained on the line for a bit less than 2 minutes (which cost him a bit more than $4).
• In December of 2015, Verizon — yes, that Verizon, the US carrier — built the world’s first working phone… Inside Minecraft. The phone could not only make calls: it supported video calls, texting and could even surf the web.

A decade later, and I think that we’re still scratching the surface of what this platform of a game would let its fans create. I mean, at this point I’ve seen people building computers inside Minecraft, capable enough to run Minecraft once more. And, of course: Doom is playable on Minecraft too.

Well, there you have it! If you missed out your chance to guess the world record for the longest phone call, I’m giving you another option: what is your personal record? Mine caps out at 1 hour, because it’s a national limit where I’m from. But hey: I wouldn’t be able to hold off more than an hour or two, I’m certain.