Nokia Launches New Multipoint Mobile Chat Application for a New Era of Mobile Messaging

Business Wire, Sept 1, 2000

Business and Technology Editors

HELSINKI, Finland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 2000

Nokia today introduced Nokia FriendsTalk, a mobile chat application that enables mobile operators and service providers to offer new enhanced, easy-to-use group communication services for their subscribers. Nokia FriendsTalk brings mobile Internet chat services into today's networks.

Mobile chat is an interactive form of online discussion allowing group communications among friends, or interest and hobby groups whilst on the move. Subscribers can join public chat rooms or create their own chat groups by forming "Friends Lists". They are able to follow and take part in discussions, send messages to multiple receivers simultaneously and retain their anonymity if needed.

"Internet based chat has become one of the most popular means of personal communications today. In the mobile world, the use of Short Message Services has risen dramatically, becoming a driving force for many new mobile services; according to estimates around 8 billion SMS messages are sent every month in the world. Mobile chat combines these two and takes the SMS culture a step further, increasing customer-loyalty, bringing new revenues for operators and new services for subscribers," said Pekka Oranen, Senior Vice President, Mobile Internet Applications, Nokia Networks.

For users, the Nokia FriendsTalk application offers easy to use, discreet and instant communications tools by providing multipoint messaging, public and private channels and individual user profiles.

Nokia FriendsTalk is now available for USSD and SMS technologies and it is designed to support other access methods, such as WAP and GPRS, allowing seamless chatting between users, regardless of the terminal. In the future, Nokia FriendsTalk will be integrated with multimedia messaging within the evolution to 3rd Generation networks. The new application can be quickly installed into existing networks, providing low cost entry and scalability with reliable and flexible management.

Nokia is paving the way to the Mobile Information Society with its innovative products and solutions. The company is the leading mobile phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks, related services as well as multimedia terminals. In 1999, Nokia's net sales totaled EUR 19.8 billion(USD 19.9 billion). Headquartered in Finland, Nokia is listed on the New York (NOK), Helsinki, Stockholm, London, Frankfurt and Paris stock exchanges and employs more than 60 000 people.

Notes to Editors:

WAP: Wireless Application Protocol provides a universal standard which enables users to easily access Web-based interactive information services and applications from their mobile phones.

USSD: Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, instead of the store and forward functionality, as with SMS, USSD is session-oriented, which means that when a user accesses a USSD service, the radio connection stays open until it is released by the user, application, or time out. This provides faster response times for interactive applications.

GPRS: General Packet Radio Service is the best platform for mobile data networking services and continuous IP connectivity. GPRS is also an essential stepping stone to 3rd generation personal multimedia services.