Hanover, Germany
At CeBIT 99, Orange, one of the world's most advanced and fastest growing, digital mobile phone companies, will demonstrate a range of potential multi-media services that will provide news, banking, entertainment, traffic and travel information to Orange customers in the UK.
The services demonstrated will be supplied by leading content providers, including ITN, Associated New Media, ITIS, Last Minute Network Ltd., and NatWest. Orange will use WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), an open global standard, as the core technology to deliver these services. WAP allows multimedia services to be clearly and easily presented to the user on the phone through simple web-type on-screen menus. It empowers mobile phone users to securely access and instantly interact with internet / intranet information.
News service: Orange will demonstrate a UK national and international news service. This is the result of an exclusive partnership, to be announced shortly, between Orange and Independent Television News (ITN), to take news headlines and stories directly from ITN's sources. As part of the demonstration, Euronews, the pan-European news channel from ITN, will display news stories in French, Italian, German, Spanish and English.
Banking service: Orange will show a business banking service with one of the UK's leading high street banks, NatWest. The demonstration will enable the user to see the transfer of funds across accounts, check payments and see balance updates directly on the screen of the phone.
Entertainment: Orange will also show a service from Associated New Media, which includes a restaurant review guide, together with cinema and theatre listings, and the breaking news that affects Londoners from the website: www.ThisisLondon.com. Another service, from Flextech Interactive, will provide television listings for terrestrial, satellite and digital television channels from its entertainment guide www.sceneone.co.uk.
Traffic and travel information: Orange will demonstrate a traffic and travel information service, which will enable customers to access traffic reports, as well as information on rail and tube delays. It will also enable users to plan a route between two points and have that route displayed on the phone's screen. This service is the result of an arrangement between Orange and ITIS (Integrated Traffic Information Service) for traffic and travel services. In addition, Orange will show a service that provides train timetable details, based on information from the internet.
Flight information: Orange will preview a service, which details flight arrival times at the world's major airports, based on information from www.TheTrip.com. Orange will also display low price, late availability flight details from www.LastMinute.com. At a future date, Orange plans to support on-line booking, using WAP technology, so that limited time offers, such as flights, can be purchased while available.
For the purposes of the exhibition, Orange is using the Nokia Gateway and the new Nokia 7110 media phone, the first WAP-based phone, which was unveiled by Nokia last month at the GSM World Congress. Orange is currently working with a number of WAP technology partners to develop WAP content services, including Nokia. Orange today announced the launch of a joint Orange & Nokia trial of their WAP Gateway.
Bob Fuller, chief operating officer and group director of UK operations, said: "These demonstrations, which Orange will be previewing at CeBIT, explore the type of services which Orange plans to launch later in the year. They are designed to be simple, easy to use and tailored to the individual's needs. We are committed to trialling and introducing simple, content-rich, mobile information services to provide extra value to our customers. With the planned launch later this year, the services will not only enable Orange to move one step closer to its vision of providing a wirefree future, but will also make people's lives easier and better."
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