End2End and Orange forge strategic alliance for the delivery of mobile data services

End2End, the leading Mobile Application Infrastructure Provider (MAIP) in Europe today announced the establishment of a strategic alliance with Orange, the UK’S most popular mobile phone service.

Under the arrangement, End2End will supply outsourced mobile application infrastructure for the provision of mobile data applications and content to
Orange’s 12.4 million customers. End2End’s turnkey solutions for sourcing, hosting, and managing mobile data services will provide Orange with flexibility and speed to introduce and manage new services and content.

“Orange chose to work with End2End because we believe that Mobile Application Infrastructure Providers represent the future of mobile data service delivery and saw significant benefits in having a reliable partner to manage the commercial and technical complexity of bringing new services to market quickly and at a reduced cost,” said Rob Furness, Head of Orange Evolution. “End2End expands our ability to deliver a broad range of data services to our customers,” he continued.

Orange plans to use End2End as one of its primary delivery mechanisms for data services. End2End will launch the first services targeted at the consumer market on the Orange network in May and the companies have already started to work on broadening the Orange service portfolio with services intended to build on the popularity of text messaging in the UK.

“We offer mobile operators and mobile virtual operators the possibility to outsource resource intensive aspects of their mobile data services sourcing and operation ” says Jim Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer of End2End. “We are excited to work with Orange to provide them with third-party developed mobile data services, delivered from End2End’s scalable and reliable platform.

Phil Lawler, Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard UK, said "We are proud to be working with End2End on this exciting venture which will see Orange become a leading provider of e-Services and business solutions to it's customers by leveraging the capabilities of End2End's infrastructure. This deal is testament to our vision of the future for mobile services and by working with these two leading players HP is demonstrating its commitment to bringing e-services to the customer".

About Orange UK
Orange, wirefree and any other Orange product or service referred to in this release are trademarks of Orange. Orange is the Europe’s number two mobile operator by footprint, with operations in 20 countries across Europe and beyond, and aims to have a presence in markets covering 1.5 billion people worldwide by 2005. As at the end of December 2001, Orange had over 12.4 million customers in the UK, 17.8 million in France and approximately 39.3 million controlled customers worldwide. Orange provides a broad range of personal communications services, including Orange GSM1800 services and other digital cellular telephone services. Information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.com

For more information please call the Orange media centre on +44 207 984 2000 or +44 7973 201 911

About End2End
End2End is a mobile applications infrastructure provider (MAIP) that offers a carrier-grade network to host, manage and deliver a range of wireless data solutions for mobile network operators (MNOs) and their virtual counterparts (MVNOs), as well as to other industry players, such as retailers, brand owners and media companies.

End2End’s provides an outsourced mobile application infrastructure that enables operators to reduce time to market without sacrificing the reliability of a carriergrade platform. End2End can accelerate operator revenues and profitability while avoiding the need for its customers to invest independently in the infrastructure and development resources normally required for the launch of data applications. End2End’s independent position between mobile network operators and the content/application providers makes it an ideal partner in the delivery of 2G and 3G mobile data services.