2005-04-04
Turkcell renews contract with Alice Systems to extend nationwide “one-click” connectivity offering
Important renewal of contract with the leading operator in Turkey and among Europe`s top ten biggest GSM operator in terms of subscribers
Oslo/Stockholm – April 5, 2005 – Alice Systems, a Swedish company owned by Birdstep Technology ASA and a provider of leading mobility and connectivity client solutions, announced today that Turkcell, the largest Turkish operator has upgraded the existing contract established with Alice Systems already in 2002. The new connectivity client solution covers, in addition to their GPRS network, their new EDGE initiative.
Turkcell launched its TurkcellConnect Mobil Modem card solution on March 21st which includes pre-bundling of the Alice Systems user interface software with the Option Globetrotter Combo EDGE PMCIA card offered with Turkcell's services.
The TurkcellConnect user interface software developed by Alice Systems provides one consistent, branded interface that works with TurkcellConnect cards and phones available to the subscriber. It is based on the “one-click“ patented software that allows users to quickly and easily configure their mobile devices to access data services provided by Turkcell across their available wireless technologies.
“Our successful business partnership with Alice Systems coupled with its capability to provide support to both our required PC cards and handsets made Alice Systems the obvious choice in enabling us to launch this attractive new service for our subscribers,“ said Ali Kesan, Chief Marketing Officer from Turkcell.
“This contract strengthens our existing relationship with Turkcell, and shows their continued trust in our ability to deliver enhanced features and easy wireless connectivity to their subscribers. It also means continued support for more handsets, additional PC cards and potentially offerings supporting new applications and on new territories,“ said Kristian Mets, VP sales from Birdstep Technology.
About Birdstep Technology
Birdstep Technology is traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) under ticker 'BIRD'. The company has headquarters in Oslo and Seattle in addition to offices in Boston, Frankfurt, Cambridge, San Francisco and Shanghai. 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 and partners include Cisco (CSCO), 3Com (COMS), Alcatel (EPA), Ericsson (ERICY), Nortel Networks (NT), HP (HPQ), Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Accenture (ACN), PCTel (PCTI), Connect One and Telenor (TELN). For more information, visit www.birdstep.com.
About Turkcell
Turkcell is the leading GSM operator in Turkey with 23.4 million postpaid and prepaid customers as December 31, 2004. Turkcell provides high-quality wireless telephone services throughout Turkey and has coverage of 100% of the towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants. Turkcell provides roaming with 435 operators in 174 countries as of January 12, 2005. Turkcell is the only NYSE listed company in Turkey. Turkcell has interests in international GSM operations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Northern Cyprus, which have a total of 3.5 million subscribers as of September 30, 2004. For more information: www.turkcell.com.
About Alice Systems
Alice Systems' mission is to enable applications like email and web access on PCs, laptops and PDAs, to be easy to use and access when communicating over GPRS, WLAN and 3G. Alice Systems provides software clients to wireless operators and has received commercial contracts from 32 network operators worldwide including T-Mobile Group and Vodafone Group among others. In addition, more than 60 operators worldwide have or are currently testing Alice Systems' software. In December 2004, Birdstep Technology acquired 100% of the company shares. The merger between Alice Systems and Birdstep creates a significant player in the market. Both companies have had a long-standing commercial partnership established already a couple of years back. This is advantageous, since both companies know both the products and the people well and can already take advantages of the existing synergies. For more information: www.alicesystems.com.
Contact Information:
Jørgen Bredesen, CEO
Birdstep Technology ASA
+47 24134700
jobr@birdstep.com