Orange Switzerland Co-Operates with End2End and Hewlett-Packard for Enterprise Mobile Data Services

Orange Communications SA, one of the three operators in Switzerland, launched in June 2002  Orange Pocket Office, a solution providing enterprises with mobile access to their internal Personal Information Management (PIM) systems such as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino through a variety of mobile handsets.

The solution, based on software developed by Yomi Applications and delivered as a managed service by End2End, the leading European Mobile Application Infrastructure Provider (MAIP) enables enterprise users to access their internal company e-mail, addresses, appointment calendar and to-do lists in real-time, securely, and without the need for costly synchronization between the mobile handset and the enterprise PIM server. Orange Pocket Office supports access via WAP phones, PDA devices, Internet as well as laptops.

“We believe that mobile data services can bring significant value to enterprises especially when utilizing the high bandwidth GPRS networks,“ says Antonio Annecchiarico, Mobile Solutions Manager at Orange Switzerland. “Orange Pocket Office provides an attractive solution for large corporations as well as small and medium size enterprises to enable their employees to work wirefree.”

The solution has been available for customers of Orange Switzerland since June 2002. HP Switzerland will provision the end customers with the solution infrastructure and installation.

“We are very excited to regarding the opportunity to work with Orange Switzerland to deliver mobile data services for the Swiss enterprise market,” says Tage Rasmussen, CEO of End2End, “Mobile access to basic communication services such as e-mail, calendar and contacts adds significant value to any enterprise with mobile workforce. The high bandwidth of GPRS networks paves the way for a revolution in mobile enterprise data services.”

“For distributing our products, we partner with the leading companies. This gives us the opportunity to focus on the thorough understanding of the market needs, which, in turn, enables us to offer companies communication solutions that make their businesses more efficient,” said Harri Lehti, CEO of Yomi Applications. “We are pleased to co-operate with End2End in delivering Yomi’s Mobile Communications Center solution to Orange Switzerland.”

About Orange
Orange Communications AG, Lausanne, Switzerland, is 100 % owned by Orange SA/France Telecom Group. On the 29th May 1998 the Federal Communications Office (BAKOM) granted Orange a license to build and operate an 1800 MHz GSM mobile network. On 29th June 1999 Orange entered the Swiss market as a provider and its network covers over 98% of the Swiss population. In December 2000 Orange acquired one of four UMTS licenses. At the end of 2001 – after only 30 months in the market - Orange achieved turnover of 887 million Swiss francs and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 10.5 million Swiss francs. By the end of June 2002 Orange had 988,000 customers, had invested 1.7 billion Swiss francs and created about 1600 new jobs. More information www.orange.ch.

About End2End
End2End is a Mobile Application Infrastructure Provider (MAIP) operating a carrier-grade network of data centres from which it delivers managed data services, technology hosting and outsourcing services to operators, portals and other companies. End2End’s outsourced mobile application infrastructure 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, 2.5G, and 3G mobile data services. 

About Yomi 
Yomi is one of the leading ICT companies in Finland. Yomi’s business operations are divided into software projects and products as well as into service operator, network operator, and cable television operations. Yomi’s revenue in 2001 was 57 million euros. The company employs 630 people. Yomi Applications Ltd, specialised in software products, is a subsidiary to Yomi.

Yomi Plc, founded in 1885, has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges since 1997. Yomi is part of the Elisa Communications Group.  The Group’s revenue in 2001 was 1,439 million euros with 7,800 employees. Further information: www.yomi.com and www.elisa.com.