Gemplus Deploys "Over the Air" Services for Hutchison Australia's 3G Network
Luxembourg and Communicasia, Singapore (ots/PRNewswire)
- This New Platform for a Hutchison Group Company Reinforces Their Continued Confidence in Gemplus Technology and Support
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card based solutions, announces the deployment of its GemConnect OTA platform for "3 mobile" in Australia - Hutchison Telecom's 3G network - and their first successful campaign update to over 470,000 USIM cards in 3's 3G network.
Following a national roaming arrangement with Telstra, which will result in significantly expanded mobile coverage for 3 customers, the company needed to update the preferred roaming network list stored within the USIM of each subscriber. Gemplus was able to carry this out remotely without the subscriber entering the point of sale or swapping their USIMs for an updated one, thus significantly reducing costs for 3.
GemConnect OTA creates a communication channel between the USIM and the operator, enabling the operator to stay in touch with its customers, update the cards with both operator and subscriber-centric applications, and maintain a relevant service based on its subscribers' needs. Content includes updates for preferred roaming lists, service subscription and other data management. The benefit to the operator is an ability to keep in touch with their subscribers while reducing the heavy costs and hassle of frequently replacing USIMs as services evolve.
"Gemplus' Over the Air platform allowed us to enable our customers to take advantage of improved network coverage simply, quickly and with minimal intrusion. It's a flexible solution that ultimately benefits the customer," said Michael Young, Director Technology, Infrastructure and Services, Hutchison.
Gemplus is the worldwide reference for OTA services, in particular for 3G networks, and this is part of the global agreement between Gemplus and the Hutchison 3G group of operators.
"Since 2003, Gemplus has deployed 3G OTA services to H3G networks around the world", said Philippe Vallée, Executive Vice President, Telecom, Gemplus. "3 appreciates the benefits of OTA technology in terms of creating an on-going relationship with their subscribers and making the most of the USIM's privileged position in the hands of the end-user."
Gemplus has been present in the Australian market for many years, which was reinforced in 2000 by setting up a local joint venture, LM Gemplus Pty Ltd. Since then, the company has established successful long term relationships with its clients and continues to invest in local technical support and solutions tailored for the Australian environment. This local presence was a key factor in their selection by 3 in Australia for this project.
About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world's leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest (2005), Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). It has sold over 5 billion smart cards.
With security at its core, and 2400 patents and patent applications produced by its innovative R&D team, Gemplus delivers a wide range of portable, personalized solutions in areas including Identity, Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Healthcare, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, and access control.
Gemplus' revenue in 2004 was 865 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
About 3
About 3 mobile
3 is the first 3G network in Australia and brings you live video calling which lets you chat face to face with 3 users whether they're across town or on the other side of the world(1).
In 3's Video Zones you'll be the one who can make video calls, experience high-speed email, catch the latest video news updates at a bus stop, watch sports video highlights of the weekend's footy in a taxi, get score updates of your favourite football team at a train station, or watch movie trailers in a supermarket queue. You can even shoot videos and email them to your friends, have your emails read to you and play video games.
And of course, with Talk & SMS covering 96% of Australia's population you can also do all the regular things like make voice calls and send SMS.
1. Video calling, information services and some messaging services only available in 3's Video Zone located in most parts of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth. International video calling available to customers of 3 networks who are in their video coverage areas. For more information: www.three.com.au
For more information, please contact:
Jane Strachey Helen Baker
Gemplus PR Edelman PR
Tel: +33-(0)442364661 Tel: +44-(0)20-7344-1285
Jane.strachey@gemplus.com Helen.baker@edelman.com(c)2005 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, please contact: Jane Strachey, Gemplus PR, Tel:
+33-(0)442364661, Jane.strachey@gemplus.com; Helen Baker, Edelman PR,
Tel: +44-(0)20-7344-1285, Helen.baker@edelman.com