Telenor's Research Award 2003 goes to Dr. Haakon Bryhni, Chief Technology Officer at Birdstep Technology.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

OSLO, Norway & SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 2003

Telenor (Nasdaq:TELN), Norway's leading telecom, IT and media company, announced today that their Nordic research prize of NOK 250,000 has been awarded to Dr. Haakon Bryhni, Birdstep Technology's CTO.

He is awarded the prize for his research within the Mobile IP standard and for his contribution to the development of seamless communication across different technologies. Kristin Clemet, the Minister for Education and Research, introduced the winner at a research seminar at Fornebu on Thursday.

Each year Telenor selects a theme for the award in agreement with the internationally composed award committee. The subject for 2003 is "Technologies and systems enabling new communication services". The committee describes the reasons for their selection as: "This year's winner has proved himself a pioneer in seeking opportunities for Mobile IP and the new radio technologies at a time where the ruling paradigm for broadband mobile services was UMTS. He has been, and is, very active in academia as well as in business. At this intersection he has shown great ability for combining basic theory with a practical and commercial realisation of his ideas."

Bryhni's work comprises aspects like broadband, nomadic services, security and quality, which has enabled a host of new applications. Examples are:

-- The user may have nomadic and wireless access to business

services in the same way as through fixed broadband networks

at work and elsewhere

-- The user may have access to the same user experience of

services, regardless of type of radio-based network

-- The user's connection with the company's existing VPN solution

may be automatically secured when communication is carried

through public (wireless) networks

-- The user may have service quality adjusted to the needs and

qualities of the relevant networks that the user is connected

to in various situations.

After completing his doctorate Haakon Bryhni started his career by setting up his own company, and he is now Chief Technology Officer at Birdstep Technology ASA. He is a much sought-after lecturer and speaker and has excellently contributed to informing and starting a dialogue on the new concepts he has been working with.

"Dr Haakon Bryhni started early leading the way into an area which is today in rapid development. It will probably pave the way for services that we will take for granted as easily as we do e-mail and mobile telephony today," according to Berit Svendsen, head of the jury and CTO of Telenor.

"This confirms that the technology we develop at Birdstep is acknowledged as innovative and positioned to enable our customers to offer new and better wireless services," said Bryhni. He also added, "The prize encourages us to continue our research-oriented product development and maintain technology leadership in a global market. It also confirms the importance of Telenor as a very influential partner and mentor of the Nordic IT industry."

About the Prize:

This year is the seventh time Telenor's Nordic research prize is awarded. Previous winners have been Dr. Gisle Bjontegaard, Telenor (1997); Professor Stephen Pink, University of Lulea (1998); The Telepathology Group in Tromso (1999); Professor Peter Andrekson, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg (2000); Professor Jon Bing, University of Oslo (2001); and Professor Christian Jensen, University of Alborg (2002). Besides, in 1997 an additional prize of NOK 50,000 was awarded to Birger Moller-Pedersen, Dag Belsnes and 0istein Haugen for their work on defining SDL92 at the Norwegian Computing Center.

About Birdstep Technology - www.birdstep.com

Birdstep Technology Inc. (OSE:BIRD) was founded in Oslo, Norway in 1996 and is traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) under ticker "BIRD". The company has approximately 60 employees in Oslo, Reading and Seattle. 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. Named a 2002 Comet Award winner by Communication Systems Design magazine, Birdstep makes your information accessible anytime, anywhere, on any device and on any infrastructure. For more information, visit www.birdstep.com.