Option and Swisscom Mobile to market seamless handover technology internationally
Cannes, 16 February 2005
Mobile Unlimited from Swisscom Mobile wins GSMA Award
Mobile Unlimited from Swisscom Mobile has won the GSMA Award for Best Enterprise Application. The Mobile Unlimited service enables fast, uninterrupted mobile Internet access at all times. Other mobile providers will be offered licences for the Mobile Unlimited technology under the name Unlimited Connection by Option (Euronext: OPTI, OPIN.BR).
The 2005 GSMA Award for the best mobile enterprise application goes to Swisscom Mobile for its Mobile Unlimited product. The award was presented by the GSM Association, the world's most important trade association for GSM operators, on the evening of the 15 February 2005 at the GSM World Congress in Cannes. On Wednesday Swisscom Mobile announced that it will be offering other mobile operators licences for its Mobile Unlimited seamless handover technology under the name Unlimited Connection. Belgian company Option, which has developed and manufactured the 3in1,data card (GPRS, UMTS, WLAN) for Mobile Unlimited, is responsible for marketing Unlimited Connection.
Swisscom Mobile has been offering Mobile Unlimited exclusively in Switzerland since September. The service enables fast, uninterrupted mobile access to the Internet and company data. The software, developed by Swisscom Mobile in conjunction with Whitestein Technologies, always selects the fastest available technology (GPRS, UMTS or WLAN) at any given time. Thanks to seamless handover technology, the connection remains up during the switchover from one transmission technology to another. The user only has to dial up once. With Mobile Unlimited, data communications are as simple and fast on the move as they are from a fixed workstation with broadband access.
"The GSMA award shows that we are on the right track with our strategy: We operate different networks simultaneously, but connect them to create a convenient entity for the customer," says a delighted Swisscom Mobile CEO, Carsten Schloter. More than 10,000 cards will have been sold in Switzerland by the spring of 2005.
Mobile Unlimited technology available under licence
As of now, the Mobile Unlimited seamless handover technology for uninterrupted switching between different networks is available under licence to other mobile operators under the name Unlimited Connection. Jan Callewaert, Option CEO: "We are very pleased that Mobile Unlimited has received the GSMA Award. And we are delighted that the successful collaboration with Swisscom Mobile is to continue." Option will market Unlimited Connection separately as a complete end-to-end solution to the mobile operators.
Unlimited Connection offers mobile operators a mature, tried-and-tested technology for a discerning market. Thanks to Unlimited Connection, they can deliver a fast, unified data network throughout their coverage region at low implementation costs. Due to the fact, that Unlimited Connection will soon be capable of integrating private wireless networks, this product is of particular interest to operators who currently have no WLAN strategy of their own. A user will be able to utilise his own network at home or in the office, and as soon as he moves out of his own reception range, Unlimited Connection switches to his mobile provider's network.
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