Telecom Italia Mobile SpA (TIM), the largest operator of mobile telephone services in Europe and the third largest in the world, has selected Software.com's InterMail(R) software to significantly enhance its messaging platform for wireless data services.
With Software.com, (Nasdaq: SWCM) a leading developer of carrier-scale Internet infrastructure applications, TIM is now able to offer to its 18 million Italian wireless customers highly scalable and reliable services including Webmail, email notification to phones, Internet email from SMS (short message service) handsets and text-to-speech capabilities for voice access to e-mail.
With Software.com, TIM can continue to expand its customized wireless data services such as the new TIM Universal Number (UNI.TIM), launched in November 1999. UNI.TIM allows any TIM customer (analog or digital) to access a range of integrated communication services. Building up from core telephony, voicemail and SMS services, UNI.TIM provides customers with a single number for all personal communications (including e-mail) and a free gateway to the Internet. The customer's mobile phone number can now be used to make and receive calls, listen to voicemails, send and receive SMS messages, receive and write e-mail messages and faxes and surf the Web.
The mobile industry widely considers wireless email and integrated messaging to be "the next killer applications." Cellular subscriber rates continue to soar, as shown by a recent research report published by Solomon Smith Barney, highlighting European growth of 39.2 million additional subscribers in the first nine months of 1999. The region is poised to reach a year-end total of more than 154 million users in 1999. With the number of subscribers growing considerably day by day, TIM needed the reliability and scalability of Software.com's proven messaging platform to support this rapid expansion.
"Consumers, businesses and public administration alike stand to benefit from the ability to access messages anywhere, anytime with any device. We selected Software.com as our strategic partner to underpin TIM's Universal Number services because of its proven track record with many of the major telcos and ISPs in North America, Europe and Asia," a TIM spokesperson said today.
Software.com's InterMail software is the first Internet messaging software that leverages a common architecture to allow service providers to offer network and device independent messaging services. Software.com's InterMail messaging software provides a high quality, extremely scalable platform that supports messaging in very high volumes while enabling telcos and ISPs to deliver messaging services uniquely tailored to each end user's needs in both the consumer and business markets.
"Europe has always been ahead of North America in terms of wireless communications and TIM has been the visionary company leading the continent," said John MacFarlane, founder and CEO of Software.com. "With 18 million customers in Italy alone, and short messages (SMS) growing explosively, with approximately 4.2 million sent each day, TIM represents our largest wireless customer to date. We look forward to helping the company continue to compete successfully in the market for advanced wireless services."
Software.com worked closely with SARITEL, a leading European systems integrator, to upgrade TIM's messaging platform. In addition, TIM retained SARITEL to activate a dedicated customer care center to support the UNI.TIM services.
"Together with Software.com, SARITEL accelerates TIM's strategy to deliver complete and innovative services to its customers," said Fabio Cammarano, CEO of SARITEL, The Service Factory of Telecom Italia Group. "We're very proud to have contributed to the significant success of TIM's new service by performing the important role of system integrator and combining our expertise with that of Software.com's."
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