Ericsson Signs Agreement With Internet Pioneer Bunyip.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 1999--Ericsson has signed a software development agreement with Bunyip, a leading-edge developer of Internet tools and services, for the development of the Index search engine and two of the eight Internet access interfaces for Ericsson's Directory Access Gateway (DAG) product.

"Ericsson is pleased to have secured Bunyip as an active partner in the continuous development of DAG," says Ulf Lesley, Director of Global Marketing, Ericsson Network Intelligence. "By partnering with Bunyip, we're able to reduce drastically the time-to-market of DAG."

By containing a central index of data sources rather than the data itself, DAG, a distributed directory service, enables users to find telephone and fax numbers and email addresses from one central point. This offers a single point of access to directory information even though the information may be held in different formats or in different places by organizations anywhere in the world.

"Ericsson has been carrying out some very exciting work in this area to which we are pleased to bring our Internet expertise," says Peter Deutsch, President of Bunyip. "Bunyip's current strong involvement with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) puts us in an ideal position to partner with Ericsson on this venture."

As a result of this partnership, Ericsson is also able to announce that the first DAG customer site has gone into live pilot. The Swedish University Network (SUNET), which has been trialing DAG since August 1998, has connected five Swedish Universities to DAG. Today's multi-site educational projects put high demands on communication. Locating other fellow researchers and colleagues via the Internet is a prerequisite for successful research and education.

The DAG service will be run by SUNET within the TISDAG project. TISDAG (The Technical InfraStructure Directory Access Gateway) was initiated two years ago. The project aims to create a nationally available Internet directory service in Sweden for White Pages information. It has already received recognition from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as an example of how to implement a protocol translator for directory services.

"Directory enquiry services are set for strong growth over the next few years," says Josie Sephton, senior consultant at market research firm Ovum. "There is an increasing emphasis on added value in this market and a need for systems which interoperate with multiple information databases - to integrate information between different operators, different service types and different countries."

Ericsson, the world leader in Network Intelligence(tm), has supplied solutions to more than 120 wireline and wireless operators in over 50 countries. Customers range from start-up carriers and ISP's to full service operators.

An illustration of DAG can be downloaded from: http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom/phli_p.shtml#dag

Ericsson is the leading provider in the new telecoms world, with communications solutions that combine telecom and datacom technologies with freedom of mobility for the user. With more than 100,000 employees in 140 countries, Ericsson simplifies communications for its customers - network operators, service providers, enterprises and consumers - the world over.

Please visit Ericsson's Press Room at: http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom

About Bunyip

Bunyip Information Systems, founded in 1992 in Montreal, develops and markets a range of Internet-based tools and information services. It is a recognized pioneer in Internet technology development including the world's first Internet search engine, Archie(R). Other product modules include Digger(R), the first Internet-based automated query routing catalogue system; Silk(R), the first Internet standard for client-side agent systems; and Jackaroo, a topic-based Internet crawler and automatic classifier. It provides these technologies to a number of companies, particularly in the publishing, media and telecommunications areas. For more information, visit http://www.bunyip.com

Network Intelligence(tm) is a trademark of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. Archie(R), Digger(R) and Silk(R) are registered trademarks of Bunyip Information Systems Inc.