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Gemplus, Nokia, Omnitel and Sonera to explore the potential of Mobile Internet
February 24, 1999
Gemplus, Nokia, Omnitel and Sonera are participating in a common project, WISHES, to explore new possibilities in mobile Internet services. The project will focus on developing new mobile Internet services based on existing standards, such as WAP, and enhancing the technology used in these services.
The WISHES project is carried out in the ESPRIT-IV programme of the European Union (project no 29199). It was launched at the beginning of September '98 with a duration of 18 months.
Project goals
WISHES aims at providing open end-to-end solutions for flexible development and deployment of new services. These services will be based on the WAP technology, offering smart and user-friendly information handling and services access. WISHES will examine and develop a range of new mobile features:
- Push of information and services: end-users will have the possibility to subscribe to services that are delivered timely, corresponding to their interest.
- Payment mechanism: will provide an easy means for on-line ordering and payment of goods and services.
- Enhanced security: a smart card-based security framework will offer a reliable link for confidential services and WAP-based Intranets.
- User profiles management: will allow for personalisation of services, tuning of user preferences and offer remote upgrading and maintenance of the mobile device.
A major factor targeted in WISHES is the usability of these new services for non-IT minded users, evaluated in field trials hosted by the operator partners of the project.
WISHES partners, sponsors and user trial partners
Each partner will contribute to the project with their leading expertise in their respective fields: Gemplus - a leading smart card solution provider, Nokia - a mobile communication specialist, Omnitel and Sonera - experienced GSM operators.
The WISHES project is sponsored by SUN Microsystems. Major content and service providers, such as news, ticketing and banking service providers as well as credit card payment providers, will participate in the WISHES user trials.
· About Gemplus
Gemplus (www.gemplus.com) is the world's leading provider of plastic and smart card-based solutions. Gemplus sells magnetic stripe cards, memory and microprocessor-based smart cards, smart contactless cards, electronic tags and smart objects. The company designs and markets software, development tools and readers. Gemplus also provides consulting, training and personalization services to deliver the industry's most comprehensive and flexible card-based solutions to its developers, distributors, partners and customers.
With sales of over US$590 million in 1997, Gemplus employs more than 4,100 people in 10 manufacturing facilities, 5 R&D centers and 41 sales and marketing offices located in 27 countries around the world. Founded in 1988, Gemplus has successfully implemented portable and secure smart card-based solutions to simplify applications such as public and wireless communications, financial transactions, loyalty, transportation, education, healthcare, identity, physical access control, Pay-TV, electronic commerce, Internet security, logical access control and information technology.
©1998 Gemplus. Gemplus is a registered trademark.
· About Nokia
Nokia (www.nokia.com) is the world's leading mobile phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile and fixed telecom networks including related customer services. Nokia also supplies solutions and products for fixed and wireless datacom, as well as multimedia terminals and computer monitors. In 1998, net sales totaled FIM 79.2 billion (USD 15.7 billion, EUR 13.3 billion). Headquartered in Finland, Nokia is listed on five European Stock Exchanges and on the New York Stock Exchange (NOK.A), has sales in over 130 countries and employs more than 44,000 people worldwide.
· About Omnitel
Omnitel (www.omnitel.it) Pronto Italia is the private GSM operator that has broken the telecommunications monopoly in Italy and has contributed to the transformation of the country's telecommunications sectors.
Starting with the launch of its commerciel service in December 1995, Omnitel has been an active participant in the market liberalisation process giving Italian consumers for the first time in their history the opportunity to choose among two cellular services. Services and product offering has been greatly increased thanks to Omnitel's creativity and ability to understand customer needs and deliver tailor made solutions.
Tha factors that have led to the success of Omnitel include a constant attention to customers needs, the enthusiasm of its employees motivated by a competitive environment and the ability to continuously set new objectives and achieve them. Omnitel has set the foundations for its future growth with 6,19 million customers on December 31, 1998, and a network infrastucture that covers 98% of the population equivalent to 88% landmass coverage (May 4, 1998).
A company that believes its success lies with its 5,500 employees at the end of December 1998: " people that can change the world ". All of the employees share a strong corporate culture based on client service, the courage to look ahead, performance and efficiency, loyalty, team work and freedom.
· About Sonera
Sonera is Finland's leading telecommunications company with subsidiaries and associated companies in 14 countries. Internationally, Sonera is a forerunner in the rapidly growing business areas of mobile, data and media communications. In 1997, Sonera's turnover was USD 1.5 billion and operating profit USD 320 million. The Group employs 8,200 people.
· About SUN Microsystems
About Sun Microsystems, Inc. Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $10 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Java Card, JDK and Java are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries.
Contact information:
Gemplus:
Jean-Philippe Bétoin, SIM Cards Marketing Manager
E-mail: jean-philippe.betoin@gemplus.com
Nokia:
Petteri Saarinen,
E-Mail: petteri.saarinen@research.nokia.com
Tel. +358 9 4376 6439
Omnitel:
Filippo Tripiciano,
E-mail: filippo.tripiciano@omnitel.it
Sonera:
Sami Oinonen,
E-mail: sami.j.oinonen@sonera.fi
Sun:
Eric Mahé, Java Technologies Marketing Manager, Sun France
E-mail: emmahe@france.sun.com
The WISHES web site: http://www.wishesproject.org
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