Oi Brazil Welcomes all New Subscribers With 128KB SIMs From Gemplus
Luxembourg (ots/PRNewswire)
- 45% of its Data Traffic Comes From Easy-to-Use SIM Menus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), a leading provider of secure card based solutions, announces that Oi, the mobile wing of the Brazilian Telemar Telecoms Group, is delivering Gemplus 128KB SIM cards to all new customers in their Brazilian GSM network.
Oi launched their GSM network in 2002 and the SIM has always played a key role in marketing their brand and value added services to all its customers which now number more than 9 million. This SIM offers new applications and content that optimize mobile phone use and promote Oi's products and services including city guides, news, stock quotes, messaging, private data storage and phonebook synchronization and back-up. Existing customers can also benefit from many of these services including phonebook back-up, through remote SIM card updates.
"Our strength lies in understanding our customer, targeting services accordingly and making the whole mobile experience a simple one, regardless of the handset, thanks to the SIM," said Alberto Blanco, Marketing Director of Oi. "This strategy has helped contribute to our bottom line which is why we looked to expand the service portfolio offered by our Oi Chip SIM."
The SIM is the most effective way of targeting all of their subscribers regardless of their handset as it is a standardized, interoperable piece of every GSM handset. This has been a successful strategy so far as Oi estimates about 45% of its data traffic revenue comes from services based on the SIM, including ring-tone download, 90% of which are launched via the interactive SIM menus. The SIM can be updated by an OTA platform ensuring the services are always in tune with their customers' needs.
Michel Canitrot, President of Gemplus, Latin America, explained, "Since the launch of Oi's GSM network, they have developed a reputation for innovation and one of the strongest brands among Latin American operators. These latest services that Oi have deployed further demonstrate the value of the SIM-OTA channel linking them with their subscribers."
Two of the key assets of the SIM are security and contact management. Oi's new personal data service allows the user to store their information including bank account details and credit card numbers securely on the chip which is then protected by a PIN. In terms of contact management the users can store all new contacts entered to the SIM on a remote server which can then be retrieved if the phone is lost or stolen. In the same vein the Oi Super Torpedo service allows the user to blast SMS to distribution lists and organize them in a PC-like file system. On top of the new services all of the existing services such as chat, email, mobile banking, prepaid reload and airtime balance inquiry are still available.
About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is a leading player in the secure card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest 2005, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). It has sold over 5.5 billion smart cards.
Gemplus delivers a wide range of portable, personalized solutions in areas including Identity, Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Healthcare, WiFi, Pay-TV, e-government, and access control.
Gemplus' revenue in 2005 was 939 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
For more information:
Tim Cawsey
Gemplus
Tel: +1-484-904-7946
Email: tim.cawsey@gemplus.com
Victoria Aitken
Edelman PR Agency
Tel: +44-(0)20-7344-1258
Email: victoria.aitken@edelman.com(c)2006 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus, the Gemplus logo, are trademarks and service marks of Gemplus S.A. and are registered in certain countries. All other trademarks and service marks, whether registered or not in specific countries, are the property of their respective owners.
Some of the statements contained in this release constitute forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activities, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking statements contained in this release include, but are not limited to: trends in wireless communication and mobile commerce markets; our ability to develop new technology, and the effects of competing technologies developed and expected intense competition generally in our main markets; profitability of our expansion strategy; challenges to or loss of our intellectual property rights; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in our major businesses; our ability to develop and take advantage of new software and services; and the effect of future acquisitions and investments on our share price. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of this release. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after this date to conform such statements to actual results or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results.
Contact:
For more information: Tim Cawsey, Gemplus, Tel: +1-484-904-7946,
Email: tim.cawsey@gemplus.com. Victoria Aitken, Edelman PR Agency,
Tel: +44-(0)20-7344-1258, Email: victoria.aitken@edelman.com