724 Solutions Announces Comprehensive Solutions Portfolio for an IP World.

Solutions Address Fundamental Business Model Challenges for Mobile Operators

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. & BARCELONA, Spain -- 724 Solutions, a leading provider of next-generation IP-based network and data services, today announced its portfolio of five market facing solutions: Seamless Access, Seamless Messaging, Content Delivery, Content Policy and Service Management. At the core of each of these solutions is 724's X-treme Multi-Service Platform (XMP), an intelligent any-to-any data traffic management platform. These five solutions focus on enabling 724's Unwired Lifestyle(TM) vision - seamless communications without barriers, for mobile operators and their subscribers.

Market Requirements

In order to successfully compete in today's competitive environment, mobile operators are faced with overcoming several key challenges. They must:

* accelerate the innovation cycle for new services by removing the dependence of services on particular clients, protocols or devices;

* prepare for future IP-based convergence data services, both IMS and non-IMS services, and move beyond the traditional vertically integrated service offerings to be able to offer any-to-any and blended services;

* reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their networks through simplification and ease of extensibility and re-usability of their infrastructure;

* ensure that their data infrastructure fully meets the scalability and reliability demands dictated by the absolute and relative growth of data services within the mobile operator's business model;

* leverage their most valued asset, their installed base of subscribers, by providing new services that offer a seamless, intuitive experience for users of these services and existing services, thus preserving the very user communities that drive and stimulate usage.

Responding to Market Requirements

724's core competence, a unique underlying carrier-grade platform, and the solutions that we offer fully meet these mobile operator challenges.

Seamless Access Solution changes the data access paradigm from standard WAP/HTTP proxy and gateway offerings to an intelligent any-to-any service traffic management solution for next generation networks. Built on an extensible multi-channel platform that takes into account all forms of service traffic and functions, the Seamless Access Solution is integrated to the network and other network elements once, and is then leveraged by mobile operators to manage access traffic from subscribers and content providers in a consistent manner and is easily extended to handle future protocols, interfaces, and value-added service concepts as data services requirements evolve.

Seamless Messaging Solution is an any-to-any seamless message handling solution, enabling subscribers to interact with each other and with services irrespective of technology. The Seamless Messaging Solution intelligently adapts messages as they flow through a mobile operator's network, ensuring that the messages are delivered to the recipient in the form that is intuitive to them. The Seamless Messaging Solution bridges the gap between next generation, for example IMS, and traditional messaging and content services by extending the reach of new services to existing clients and from new clients to existing subscribers and services.

Content Delivery Solution is a flexible multi-channel content acquisition and delivery solution that enables mobile operators to provide subscribers with a significantly enhanced experience by delivering personalized premium content when and where they want it, and with zero latency.

Service Management Solution allows mobile operators to bring premium content on-board for use with subscribers across various delivery and access channels. The Service Management Solution uses a powerful workflow engine to enable the mobile operator to flexibly define and manage those services, seamlessly and in real-time; and, enhance the relationship with premium content providers by providing timely delivery notification, transaction details to facilitate the settlement of revenues due, and the enrichment of premium content requests or message traffic.

Content Policy Solution allows mobile operators to manage their premium content policies by dynamically filtering content and services being requested by or pushed to subscribers across multiple channels. The Content Policy Solution combines multiple content classification technologies, age verification, real-time rating and validation of content based on service definition, before letting the business logic decide the appropriate content policy to apply. The solution enables subscriber self management and parental controls and has the flexibility for the mobile operator to define and modify standard policies through the use of a flexible workflow engine.

"IP and convergence technologies offer the promise of new, rich blended services," said John Sims, Chief Executive Officer of 724 Solutions. "But, to realize the enormous potential from such services, mobile operators must be able to offer these in ways that capitalize on the value of their existing base of subscribers. This portfolio of solutions accomplishes that and, as such, provides our mobile operator customers the opportunity to fundamentally change the ROI from the launch of their new services."

Unique Underlying Architecture

At the core of each of the solutions is 724's X-treme Multi-Service Platform (XMP), an intelligent data traffic management platform. XMP was designed as a loosely-coupled, component-based architecture with the premise that any such architecture must be flexible enough to accommodate a high degree of change. Additionally, this architectural approach enables the use of parallel processing techniques that enhance the platform's ability to meet the carrier-grade requirements of scalability and reliability. These same design characteristics allow this platform to deliver industry-leading total cost of ownership (TCO), through a combination of performance and support for Linux and Blade Server technologies.

"Our core technology competence, based on over 30 years of bet your business heritage, is the intelligent traffic and service message handling of our XMP platform," said Ian Pattison, Chief Technology Officer of 724 Solutions. "Eliminating the dependence of services on a particular client, protocol or device allows a larger number of services to be brought to market quickly, resulting in increased data traffic, capacity and scalability requirements that XMP can easily fulfill."

724 Solutions will be demonstrating their Seamless Messaging, Content Delivery and Content Policy Solutions at 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona on February 12 - 15. Stop by 724's booth, number A60 in Hall 2.1 for a live demonstration and to learn more.

About 724 Solutions

724 Solutions delivers intelligent any-to-any service message and traffic handling solutions built upon a common carrier-grade architecture that allows mobile network operators and virtual network operators to rapidly deploy flexible and open next generation IP-based network and data services. The company's solutions enable the Unwired Lifestyle(TM), 724's vision of seamless communication without barriers, a vision of how subscribers will use mobile data services to enhance and enrich their professional and private lives with services relevant to their specific needs, with user communities preserved across generations of technology and with data services as reliable and ubiquitous as voice services. 724 Solutions is a global company headquartered in Santa Barbara, California and with development centers in Canada, Switzerland and India. 724 Solutions is privately owned by Austin Ventures. For more information, please visit www.724.com.