(February 23, 1999) - France Telecom and Nokia have signed an agreement for the supply of an end to end solution compliant with the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). France Telecom will start building and piloting the new value added services, such as Internet and intranet access for GSM mobile phones. These new WAP compliant services will be available in the first half of 1999, putting France Telecom among the first operators worldwide to experiment a range of Internet services using the WAP standard.
This agreement covers a comprehensive solution which includes the infrastructure platform and mobile phones. The infrastructure includes network elements from the Nokia IP portofolio such as the Nokia IP440 and VPN200 firewall routers, as well as Nokia Artus Messaging Platform and the Nokia Access Router. The mobile handset will be the Nokia 7110 dual band GSM phone which Nokia introduced today. The Nokia 7110 media phone supports the WAP specification 1.0.
The Nokia 7110 media phone is an optimal plaform for advanced access to a new range of services and Internet content. The phone can access text information available from the Internet. The range of services is therefore almost endless from information to entertainment, including categories such as news, weather reports, stock prices, e-mail, electronic banking, TV-programmes and movie schedules.
"We are starting the real convergence with mobile phones and the Internet in the launch of this project," said Didier Quillot, Commercial Director, France Telecom Mobiles. "Nokia has helped us to implement this service." It enables the possibility to offer customers services tailored according to their personal communications needs.
France Telecom is France's leading operator of mobile communications services. Itineris, the France Telecom GSM service, is the largest mobile network in France with close to 6 million customers. Itineris owes its fast growth to the quality of its network and to its innovative services. France Télécom is member of the WAP Forum.
"Nokia is pleased to work with a pioneering operator, such as France Telecom. As this new market emerges, those companies who take an innovative approach towards wireless services will be able to lead the way to personal multimedia", says Anssi Vanjoki, member of the Nokia Executive Board. "This is a clear indication that personal and wireless multimedia is a reality today."
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