Claro Brazil launches Synchro

RNS Number : 7917X

Synchronica PLC

13 December 2010

 



Synchronica plc

("Synchronica" or "the Company")

Claro Brazil Becomes Fourth América Móvil Subsidiary to Launch Synchronica's Churn-Busting Mobile IM Solution

Highlights:

·     Claro Brazil is offering the churn-reducing Claro Messenger IM Service to their more than 48 million-strong customer base

·     The launch in Brazil is the fourth successful roll-out of Synchronica's IM solution, which will ultimately be deployed across all 17 América Móvil subsidiaries

·     The agreement with América Móvil provides Synchronica with a growing recurring revenue stream in one of the largest mobile markets worldwide

América Móvil's Claro Brazil has launched Claro Messenger, a mobile IM service powered by Synchronica's hosted IMPS platform. This is the fourth launch of the churn-reducing Synchronica-based service by an América Móvil subsidiary within two weeks. Brazil is the largest country in South America and Claro Brazil has 49 million subscribers, which now have access to Synchronica's device-agnostic mobile IM solution.

Synchronica's mobile IM solution is scheduled to be deployed by all 17 of América Móvil's subsidiaries as part of a group-wide framework agreement signed earlier this year. The group wide agreement provides Synchronica with a growing recurring revenue stream in one of the largest mobile markets worldwide. Synchronica continues to work closely with América Móvil to deploy the service in the remaining 13 subsidiaries. A number of launches are anticipated over the next four weeks, in order to benefit from the Christmas rush.

Claro Messenger is América Móvil's branded mobile Instant Messaging service that is based on Synchronica's hosted IMPS platform. Using Claro Messenger, users can "chat" from their mobile with other mobile or PC users, providing a full-integrated mobile instant messaging experience.

"We live in an age of electronic networking, and with Claro Messenger, we play an important role in providing yet another way for our subscribers to communicate with each another", says Fiamma Zarife, Claro's Director of Value-Added Services and Roaming.

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, added: "Across Latin America, sticky value added services (VAS) such as mobile IM are proving to be successful churn inhibitors and we are certain that this will prove to be the case in Brazil too."

Mobile IM as a consumer solution, in tandem with an operator-provided IM community, enriches the VAS portfolio and reduces churn, because users tend to become highly dependent on their IM identity, and do not want to lose this by moving to another network operator.

Customers can register for the service by visiting Claro Brazil's website - http://www.claroideias.com.br/claromessenger or by using their phone to navigate to the Msngr icon in the Claro WAP menu.

Brazil is one of the largest and fastest growing mobile telecommunications markets in the world, with a population approaching 200 million people. A recent report from Wireless Intelligence reveals that 15 million new mobile lines were connected in Latin America during the second quarter of 2010 alone, while mobile penetration in the region stands at 90%. The continuing expansion of markets in Chile, Argentina and Brazil continues to propel growth.

Enquiries:

Synchronica plc www.synchronica.com	Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO Angus Dent, CFO Nicole Meissner, COO	[phone] [phone] [phone]
finnCap	Clive Carver , Nomad Charlotte Stranner, Corporate Finance Stephen Norcross, Corporate Broker	[phone] [phone] [phone]
Walbrook PR Ltd	Paul McManus (media relations)	[phone] [e-mail]
	Paul Cornelius (investor relations)	[e-mail]

About Synchronica

Synchronica plc is a leading developer of next-generation mobile messaging solutions. Mobile Gateway, Synchronica's flagship product, provides push email, synchronization, instant messaging (IM), and social networking services to any mobile phone currently in use. Synchronica's patented transcoding engine uses advanced streaming to download email attachments and can dramatically reduce the consumption of network bandwidth by as much as 90 percent.

Mobile operators and device manufacturers from emerging and developed markets rely on Synchronica's white-labelled product for providing mass market messaging services across the entire customer base, diversifying revenues and reducing churn.

Headquartered in England, Synchronica also maintains a development centre in Germany and the Philippines in addition to a regional presence in Canada, the USA, Hong Kong, Spain, and Dubai. Synchronica plc is a public company traded on the AIM list of the London Stock Exchange (SYNC) and the Venture Exchange of the Toronto Stock Exchange (SYN). For further information, please visit www.synchronica.com

About Claro

Claro is a leading wireless carrier in Brazil, it operates nationally and currently serves more than 48 million customers.

Claro is a leader in the offering of innovative content and services, in addition to digital infrastructure and coverage with GSM and 3G technology for more than 3.540 cities in Brazil. The carrier has roaming agreements in 160 countries for voice services and 140 countries for data services. Claro is controlled by América Móvil, one of the five largest wireless telecommunications groups in the world.

In the corporate responsibility area, Claro maintains the Institute Claro, which aims to structure its social investment and encourage the use of new technologies in education.

More information about Claro: www.claro.com.br/imprensa

 

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