Colibria Welcomes GSMA Instant Messaging Initiative

Colibria lends its support to the GSMA “Personal IM� announcement at the 3GSM World Congress, designed to put IM on a par with text messaging

March 02, 2006 -- Colibria AS, the leading international developer of mobile Instant Messaging and Presence technology platforms, has welcomed the GSMA’s announcement on Instant Messaging (IM), made on 13th February 2006 at the 3GSM World Congress, supported by 15 of the world’s leading mobile phone operators. The initiative will help ensure that IM will be rolled out consistently and universally, acting as an important cornerstone for future mobile service launches. According to the GSMA, eight of the world’s largest operators - China Mobile, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, TIM, T-Mobile, Turkcell and Vodafone, as well as the GSM operators in India - Aircel, Bharti, BSNL, Hutchison Essar, Idea, MTNL and Spice – are planning to roll out IM services (see www.gsmworld.com for the full details). The underlying tenet of the initiative involves adhering to the core GSM principles of ease-of-use, security, reliability, interoperability and initiating party pays.

Colibria’s CEO Keith Gibson is greatly encouraged at the new impetus that the GSMA announcement will give to IM on a global scale, commenting:

“This is a very positive initiative from the mobile operators, which should now enable the delivery of valuable new and innovative services. Colibria has been working with the industry over a number of years to ensure that there are a common set of deployable standards that will facilitate this adoption process, and with a wealth of experience behind us in the IM sector, we are well placed to help operators to achieve their goal.�

Colibria’s CTO Lars Kristian Roland believes that the news will accelerate the move towards universal interconnectivity:
“Colibria fully supports the GSMA initiative for interconnectivity between IM servers. Mobile operators are currently deploying their own next generation mobile IM servers, enabling them to offer mobile IM services to their existing community. However, the success of mobile IM services is highly dependent on interconnecting each operator community, both within an individual country and internationally, and the GSMA initiative for interconnectivity outlines how to do this. At Colibria, we have conducted extensive research, in conjunction with a number of mobile operators, indicating that messaging usage will change dramatically when a user moves from SMS to instant messaging. We believe that mobile IM will increase messaging volumes considerably, as well as bringing the existing mobile community closer together through increased communication levels.�

Mobile operators currently have large interconnected communities of customers that use a combination of SMS and MMS. The mobile instant messaging technology enables mobile operators to offer a more interactive messaging experience to their customers, such as interactive dialogue and features such as typing alerts – representing a major evolution of the user messaging experience. Operators are not only interconnecting different IM communities, but also are integrating the new IM technology seamlessly and intuitively with existing SMS and MMS technologies. Some have taken this a step further, connecting their services to Internet-based IM services, such as MSN and GoogleTalk.

Colibria provides a carrier grade Instant Messaging and Presence Platform, the Colibria Companion IM and Presence Server, which supports interconnectivity between mobile operators and service providers. The Colibria platform supports a number of protocols to interconnect communities, including SIP/SIMPLE, IMPS SSP and XMPP. Colibria regards SIP/SIMPLE as the most important protocol for interconnecting communities, due to its wide usage on the Internet and the backing received by the IMS standards developers. Colibria also provides several protocols for clients to access the IM service, including the mature OMA-IMPS protocol (Wireless Village), as well as IMS technology, and the legacy bearers SMS and MMS.

About Colibria Companion IM and Presence Server
The Colibria Companion IM and Presence Server represents a powerful carrier-grade instant messaging and presence enabler, capable of delivering certified OMA IMPS and SIP/IMS support. It has unmatched embedded client interoperability, as well as support for legacy clients – SMS, MMS, HTML, XHTML, and WAP. It incorporates a feature-rich PC client, as well as support for a multitude of downloadable terminal clients, including Symbian, J2ME, iMode, Microsoft Mobile Clients and BREW. Colibria Companion’s Internet IM Gateway offers comprehensive IM interoperability, combining an IM and Presence Gateway for mobile and PC messaging convergence.

About Colibria
Established in 2000, Colibria is a technology leader in the field of instant messaging and presence systems, with its IM and Presence and Communities solutions deployed by a variety of mobile operators across Europe, Asia and Latin America. Colibria's new generation core network mobile platforms are scalable and flexible solutions that provide the vital infrastructure for advanced presence, messaging, and multimedia services - fully supporting IMPS, as well as ensuring a seamless use of IMPS and SIP for IMS-enabled networks. The company operates from locations in Norway, the UK, the Philippines, Belgium and Singapore, and is a member of the Open Mobile Alliance, contributing extensively to the OMA IMPS forum. Colibria’s investors include Northzone Ventures (www.northzone.com), Four Seasons Venture (www.fsv.no), and Ferd Venture (www.ferdventure.no).

Source: Colibria