Contract win with Entel PCS i

RNS Number : 1897M

Synchronica PLC

26 January 2009

 



Synchronica plc

('Synchronica' or 'the Company')

Synchronica signs up Entel PCS as first operator in Latin America

Highlights

• Key contract win for Synchronica in Latin America 

• First contract win borne out of relationship with strategic partner Brightstar

• Entel PCS to launch push email service based on Mobile Gateway in Chile in Q1

Royal Tunbridge Wells, 26 January 2009 - Synchronica plc, the international provider of mobile email and synchronization solutions, has won a key contract in South America with leading Chilean mobile operator Entel PCS. The agreement, Synchronica's first win in the region, will enable Entel PCS to launch a mass email solution called "Email Movil" an affordable instant email (push email) and synchronization service to subscribers that works on a broad range of mobile phones in use today. 

Entel PCS has a 43.4 per cent revenue share of the mobile market in Chile (1) and almost six million subscribers. Synchronica's push email and synchronization solution supports Entel PCS's stated aim of focusing more on value added services as a way of increasing overall subscriber revenues and improving customer loyalty. 

This agreement represents the first win for Synchronica's strategic partner, Brightstar. Brightstar was appointed in February 2008 to promote Synchronica Mobile Gateway in high-growth regions such as Latin America.

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica commented: "The agreement with Entel PCS, a major player in the South American market, represents a key milestone for Synchronica. By offering this innovative push email service that works on almost any handset, Entel PCS can accelerate mobile email adoption rates, resulting in higher ARPU over time."

Rodrigo Baudrand, Business Solutions Manager of Entel PCS added: "We share a common view with Synchronica that value-added services such as mobile email represent the future for our business. We are continually looking to provide our customers with life-enhancing value-added services that raise ARPU and improve customer loyalty and with the Synchronica Mobile Gateway we have a simple and easy to use email solution that will help us do just that."  

According to a recent report by IE Market Research (2), the level of wireless penetration in Chile will continue increasing to reach 103.2% during 2010. This will be the second highest wireless penetration level in Latin America after Argentina (108.9% during 2010). The number of total subscribers in Chile will increase from a projected 15.8 million to 17.7 million in the forecast period, 2008 - 2010.

Enquiries:

Synchronica plc	Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO, Angus Dent, CFO,  Nicole Meissner, CMO,	[phone] [phone] [phone]
ICIS	Tom Moriarty Christian Taylor-Wilkinson Caroline Evans-Jones	[phone]
FinnCap	Charles Cunningham, Geoff Nash	[phone]

  About Entel PCS

With almost 6 million subscribers, Entel PCS leads the main financial, brand and service indicators in Chile and was awarded with the Frost & Sullivan prize for the Best Mobile Service Provider 2007 in Latin America. Entel PCS is part of Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A., the largest telecommunication company in Chile, that provides mobile, data and IT, and internet services, local and long-distance telephony services (together with related services). Entel also has operations in Perú and is listed on the Chilean stock exchange (Bolsa de Comercio de Santiago) under the ticker symbol ENTEL. Its headquarters are located in Santiago, Chile.

About Synchronica Mobile Gateway

Synchronica's Mobile Gateway is ideally suited to emerging markets and provides carrier-grade push email and synchronization services for virtually all mass market feature phones and smartphones being used by subscribers today. It is based on the dominant open industry standards Push IMAP (LEMONADE) for mobile email and SyncML (OMA DS) for contact and calendar synchronization and works with the built-in email and synchronization clients found in more than 1.5 billion phones. Serving consumers and prosumers, Mobile Gateway includes back-end support for POP3 and IMAP mailboxes, connecting to popular services, such as AOL or Gmail. For business users, it provides a unique zero footprint architecture where users simply register their devices and instantly start to receive corporate email on their phone, without requiring additional connectors behind the firewall. Business mailboxes supported include Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, and Sun Java System Communications Suite.

About Synchronica 

Synchronica plc develops and markets mobile email and synchronization solutions for mobile operators and device manufacturers. Products include the award-winning push email and synchronization solution Mobile Gateway, and the device backup solution Mobile Backup. Based on industry-standards, Synchronica can reach the built-in email and synchronization clients of more than 1.5 billion mobile devices on the market today. Service providers in emerging and developed markets use Synchronica products to offer mobile email, PIM synchronization, and backup and restore services to consumer and business subscribers.

Synchronica recently acquired Axis Mobile Ltd and is set to become the leading player in mass market mobile email and synchronization middleware. The enhanced Synchronica Mobile Gateway will offer the most comprehensive multi-protocol mobile email solution in the market today introducing Email-to-SMS and Email-to-MMS as well as WAP and xHTML Gateways. Document Transcoding will add the ability to display a large variety of attachments, such as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint on standard feature phones.

Headquartered in England Synchronica has a development centre in Germany and presences in the USA, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Synchronica plc is a public company traded on the AIM list of the London Stock Exchange (SYNC.LN). More information is available at www.synchronica.com

About Brightstar

Brightstar Corp. is a global leader in customized distribution and supply chain solutions for the wireless industry. Headquartered in Miami, FL, Brightstar operates sales, distribution and manufacturing facilities in 50 countries on six continents, providing the largest global reach for its customers. Brightstar was named a Global Growth Company by the World Economic Forum, an exclusive list of 142 companies recognized for being visionary and fast growing businesses that have exceptional executive leadership and are redefining their respective industries. The company provides solutions to more than 30,000 network operators, MVNOs, retailers, resellers, and independent agents around the world, and also represents the world's leading wireless manufacturers. The company exceeded $4.8 billion in gross revenues in 2007. For more information, visit www.brightstarcorp.com.

1 Source: IDC/Entel September 2008

2 Source:  Research and Markets 2008: 2Q08 Chile Mobile Forecast, 2008 - 2010

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