PR releases

New mobile comms venture from BT

February 16, 2005: BT LAUNCHES NEW MOBILE CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND DELIVERY VENTURE iO to offer complete managed service enabling operators and content providers to accelerate development and delivery of 3G mobile content

iO, a new venture jointly funded by British Telecommunications plc (BT) and New Venture Partners LLC (NVP), the corporate venturing firm, today announced its new service for managing and delivering mobile content.

The new service, which will be shown for the first time at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France (Hall 5, Stand CZ18), enables efficient integration and management of packaging, pricing, presentation, purchase, delivery and billing for mobile content.

iO offers a fully managed service with unique, integrated workflow management capabilities, that is controlled via web interfaces and is able to support virtually any data-network architecture or mobile device. It will initially be marketed to mobile network operators as a complete outsourced solution for content delivery on a revenue-share basis by BT Global Services.

iO’s service is based on ‘carrier-grade’ technologies, originally developed within BT, providing significant benefits for operators, content developers and consumers alike. Mobile network operators gain more rapid access to, and deployment of, a vast range of branded, global and local content (such as video, audio, MMS and SMS, among others) with minimal investment and risk.

Operators can also manage marketing, pricing and billing through dynamic, operator-controlled, consumer portal interfaces (Web and WAP) while keeping control over the branding and presentation of customer interfaces.
For content providers the iO solution provides advanced tools for packaging and pricing mobile content. It also provides immediate access to multiple mobile operators while protecting brand and intellectual property rights.

Consumers benefit from instant access to a broader range of global and local content from major brands. The new iO solution also improves the buying and purchasing experience for end-users, making it easy to browse, select and pay for new mobile content.

Brendan Dowling, iO’s general manager, said: “This new iO service is the culmination of years of research and development, and is based on countless discussions with major players in the industry to identify the key capabilities required. The result is a uniquely advanced and comprehensive service that supports operators and content providers in the development, marketing and delivery of mobile content.”

The market for mobile content is expanding fast. The advent of 3G services opens the door for the delivery of a host of new content services via mobile networks: real music, pictures, video and audio such as news, TV and radio programmes, 3D games and mobile applications. The challenge for operators and content providers alike is how to package, present and deliver such content while minimising the capital investment and resources required for the development of supporting systems and infrastructures. Time to market, efficiency and flexibility in distribution, delivery and billing are the key factors in determining commercial success. iO addresses all these issues and provides operators with significant competitive advantage in marketing 3G content services.

About iO

iO is a BT venture funded by BT  and New Venture Partners LLC (NVP). It was formed to develop and market solutions to support the delivery of mobile content. The core iO technologies are based on research and development that began nearly five years ago in BTExact, BT’s research, technology and IT operations business. Since then it has been continually developed and further enhanced with the integration of commercially developed software.

About New Venture Partners (NVP)

NVP is a venture capital firm recognize as a leader in the field of corporate spin-outs.  Since March 1997, NVP has developed and invested in over 40 portfolio companies that resulted from the spin-out of technologies from its corporate partners including Lucent/Bell Labs, British Telecom and Philips, among others.  Recent successes include iBiquity Digital, Flarion, Vallent (formerly Watchmark-Comnitel), LPSS (now Intrado), Celiant (now part of Andrew Corp.), Internet Photonics (now part of Ciena), Vidus and Azure Solutions.  For further information, see www.nvpllc.com

About BT

BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions serving customers in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.  Its principal activities include IT and networking services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services.

BT consists principally of three lines of business:

· BT Retail, providing fixed and mobile communications services and solutions and IT and networking services to more than 20 million business and residential customers in the UK. It is also a leading UK internet services provider.
· BT Wholesale, providing network services and solutions within the UK to more than 600 fixed and mobile operators and service providers including the provision of  broadband, private circuits.
· BT Global Services, providing IT and networking services internationally to meet the needs of multi-site organisations with European operations. BT Global Services operates in more than 130 countries and also offers international carrier services.

In the year ended 31 March 2004, BT Group’s turnover was £18,519 million with profit before goodwill amortisation, exceptional items and taxation of £2,013 million.

BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group.

For more information, visit www.bt.com/about