UAB OMNITEL, Lithuania's leading GSM operator, announced today that it has awarded Motorola Inc (NYSE:MOT) a contract for the supply and deployment of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) high speed mobile data on the Omnitel GSM network. With the widest GSM network coverage in Lithuania, Omnitel will bring the first GPRS service to the rapidly expanding Lithuanian market, utilising the world's first proven commercial GPRS system from Motorola's Global Telecom Solutions Sector and strategic alliance partner Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO).
Availability of GPRS services is planned for Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, by October 2000. Nationwide network coverage is scheduled for early 2001. The 'always on, always connected', high speed mobile data service will deliver a wide range of Internet services to mobile devices, and opens up the mobile market to a wealth of data applications, including e-commerce, email, and data transfer. The expertise of Motorola's Applications Development Centre, based in Stockholm, will be available for Omnitel to jointly develop innovative applications that can be delivered via a GPRS network to the subscriber devices. Omnitel will launch its GPRS service with Motorola's Timeport™ 260 GPRS phones (a) - the world's first GSM tri-band GPRS handsets.
The end-to-end GPRS solution being implemented for Omnitel includes the Smart Mediator, the billing mediation solution specifically designed for GPRS by Motorola and Logica, and launched in February this year. Smart Mediator sits within the GSM/GPRS network, compressing and collating data records for delivery to the billing system for invoicing - potentially by event, call duration, amount of data transferred, application accessed, time of network access, location of subscriber and quality of service and type of subscriber device.
The methods of charging for GPRS will vary from operator to operator. As with any new market, the key to success is flexibility. Smart Mediator provides this flexibility, giving the operator control to charge as the market and business dictates.
Victor Gediminas Gruodis, President and CEO of Omnitel, said: "We are a company that constantly strives to provide innovative services to our customers. Omnitel has made yet another step forward in bringing the newest technology to its customers with Motorola's complete GPRS end-to-end solution. Our success in Lithuania continues to grow after working with Motorola for six years, and we look forward to continuing that partnership as we move to the new generation of mobile networks in Lithuania."
"Omnitel has continually offered its subscribers services that exceed their expectations. Motorola and Cisco have the world's first proven commercial GPRS end-to-end solution, an innovation that allows us to rapidly install and deploy GPRS networks for operators looking for early time to market. We look forward to enabling Omnitel to maintain its current course as the wireless leader in Lithuania," said Jeff Gordon, Motorola corporate vice president and regional general manager for Motorola GTSS.
Motorola, through its alliance with Cisco, is the only supplier worldwide with complete end-to-end GPRS network solutions in commercial service. Omnitel is the most recent GSM operator to announce its selection of the Motorola/Cisco GPRS solution, which enabled the launch of the world's first four commercial GPRS networks. In June of this year, the Motorola/Cisco GPRS solution enabled the launch of commercial GPRS networks for BT Cellnet in the UK and T-Mobil in Germany, and for Telsim in Turkey and Shenzhen Unicom in China during August.
The Motorola/Cisco GPRS architecture can be implemented over an existing GSM network, giving operators investment protection over existing infrastructure. Motorola's GSM infrastructure systems are GPRS-ready, requiring only a software load and PCU addition, with no modifications to existing hardware. Offering controlled evolution to third generation mobile communications, the Motorola/Cisco GPRS data solution enables operators to take advantage of many new revenue opportunities. Cisco and Motorola are driving market growth and developing applications and value- added services to provide operators with innovative and competitive offerings for their subscriber base.
Motorola has supplied Omnitel GSM system solutions since 1994. The Omnitel network was the first commercial GSM system in Lithuania, launched in March 1995. Motorola also built the original Omnitel network and continues to be the sole supplier of GSM network infrastructure.
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