End2End Joins Wireless Village, Promotes Industry Messaging Standards

End2End, the leading Mobile Application Infrastructure Provider (MAIP), today announced that it has joined Wireless Village, the Mobile Instant Messaging and Presence Services (IMPS) initiative formed by Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola. By joining, End2End illustrates its continuous commitment to support and participate in the creation of industry standards for key protocols and technologies.

Since its introduction in 1992, SMS messaging has achieved a huge popularity. However, the GSM-standard SMS feature does not support a “presence service”, which would keep track of the user’s online status and availability of selected friends or colleagues, as well as notify the user of changes in their status or availability. Though some instant messaging applications have been developed and brought to market, a number of competing protocols have caused interoperability problems between systems, making them difficult to deploy for mobile users.

Launched in April 2001, the Wireless Village initiative is an open industry initiative which has been created to develop and promote a universal protocol for mobile Messaging and Presence Services among workstations, network application servers, and mobile information appliances, such as mobile phones, handheld computers, PDAs and other mobile devices.

“Participating in initiatives such as the Wireless Village enables End2End to ensure that our infrastructure is developed according to the prevailing industry standards and provides a basis on top of which we build our partnerships,” says Tage Rasmussen, Chief Technology Officer of End2End. “We are excited about the opportunity to help drive the market for mobile data services by participating in the creation of industry standards and increasing cross-network communication possibilities.”

About Wireless Village

Founded by Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia, Wireless Village, the Mobile Instant Messaging and Presence Services (IMPS) Initiative, was formed in April 2001 to define and promote a set of universal specifications for mobile instant messaging and presence services. The specifications will be used for exchanging messages and presence information between mobile devices, mobile services and Internet-based instant messaging services, all fully interoperable and leveraging existing web technologies. Through its supporters, the Wireless Village initiative aims to build a vibrant community of end users and global business partners where Internet and wireless domains converge. The IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO) provides day-to-day administrative support to the Wireless Village initiative. Please visit www.wireless-village.org for more information.

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 provides an outsourced mobile application infrastructure that enables operators to reduce time to market without sacrificing the reliability of a carrier-grade 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.