2005-07-15

Birdstep contributes with mobility technology into SUMO, a new European ITEA project for harnessing the full potential of mobile broadband services

Birdstep Technology ASA will act as a key technology contributor to the project by providing advanced seamless mobility technology.

Oslo –June 16, 2005 - A consortium of European R&D authorities as part of the EUREKA cooperation has signed a Research and Development contract with the Service Ubiquity in the Mobile and wireless Realm (SUMO) consortium led by Alcatel to create solutions that increase productivity and allow the growth of user centric mobile wideband and broadband services.

The SUMO consortium includes leading expertise in mobility technologies covering service, system and infrastructure aspects to ensure seamless multi-access mobile communications. A balanced mix of industry types has been engaged including content, software and service providers, integrators, academia, and telecom infrastructure and terminal manufacturers. The members include the Alcatel R&I, Telenor R&D, Birdstep Technology, NRK, Beep Science, Euskatel RTD, Logica CMG, UniK, and leading European research institutions and universities. The Norwegian Research Council funds the Norwegian research partners, headed by Telenor R&D.
The SUMO project will address the multitude of opportunities and challenges present to provide service continuity during mobility of the user, relying on the available existing resources and adaptation techniques available using powerful multimode terminals. The project will bring new mobility services on wireless access infrastructure covering cellular networks (2.5G/3G) as well as WLAN, and ultimately even WiMAX and hybrid solutions. These networks will be transparently integrated on a common and expandable platform to complement each other in an optimal way and to satisfy different service requirements.

Birdstep Technology ASA will act as a key technology contributor to the consortium by providing technology for seamless and secure roaming for wireless users over various access networks that goes beyond what the UMA initiative offers today. With such technology the project will be able to create applications that are not only network-aware, but have the ability to dynamically adapt to network changes. Birdstep's development experience includes detailed knowledge of software for mobile devices, including laptop, tablet, PDA and SmartPhone terminals running Windows and Symbian operating systems. Birdstep will participate in enhancing these products to adapt to the requirements defined in SUMO and will also integrate experimental functionalities developed by other partners into the SUMO platform.

The funding scope of SUMO represents funding of the project 110 man-year effort by the EUREKA partners over a three-year period, out of which Birdstep is granted 469K EUR with primary focus on advanced software development for mobile communications. The funding together with own R&D activities allows Birdstep to design and develop “intelligent” client software in close cooperation with complementary partners. In this R&D project the consortium will target very advanced technologies and solutions related to the development of new seamless and ubiquitous mobile services.

ABOUT BIRDSTEP TECHNOLOGY ASA
Birdstep Technology is traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) under ticker \\\'BIRD\\\'. The company has its headquarters in Oslo in addition to offices in Cambridge, Seattle and Stockholm. Birdstep's small footprint, high performance database technologies combined with its wireless roaming and access software enables companies to build innovative solutions for embedded systems and the Mobile Internet. Birdstep makes your information accessible anytime, anywhere, on any device and on any infrastructure. Birdstep's global customers include 3Com (COMS), AMENA, Cisco, Daimler Chrysler Aerospace, Ericsson, T-Mobile, TIM, Telenor, Tele2, Telia Sonera, Turkcell, TMN and Nextel. For more information, visit www.birdstep.com.

ABOUT ITEA PROGRAM
The European research and development program for developing core competencies of IT makers and users to secure the availability of world-competitive Information Technology for the European Industry being executed in co-operation by partners in EUREKA countries user mutually agreed projects endorsed by EUREKA under project 2023.

ABOUT THE SUMO PROJECT
Over the next decade, the majority of the modern world will communicate wirelessly. As a result, wireless communication shall become truly universal (ubiquitous) and transparent to the user, making a flexible, high-capacity, standards-based wireless infrastructure even more crucial. Indeed, users want access to services without having to worry about the connections available while they are moving. All mobile and wireless technologies will coexist, working in tandem to meet service provider and customer needs. This coexistence, the transparency of use and the seamless connectivity are strong requirements to enable future new applications, services and related economical activities. Mobile professionals and public consumers will expect to have available all their services anywhere and anytime. Moreover, they will need to access to the same set of personalized services with familiar consistency preserved as much as possible. In SUMO project, the primary target is service continuity during mobility of the user, relying on the available, heterogeneous resources and adaptation techniques. An effort of detailed planning was carried out during 2004. The project is now approved and scheduled for execution over a period of three years (2005-2007).

Contact Information:
Haakon Bryhni, CTO
Birdstep Technology ASA
+47 24134700
habr@birdstep.com

Stefano Holguin, VP Marketing
Birdstep Technology ASA
+47 24134700
stho@birdstep.com