Comverse Selected By Portuguese Wireless Operator, Vodafone, To Provide Its Market-Leading Unified Messaging Solution

Business Wire, Nov 14, 2001

Business Editors

WOODBURY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 14, 2001

Comverse, a unit of Comverse Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:CMVT), and the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communications services, today announced it has been selected to provide its market-leading unified messaging solution at Vodafone in Portugal. Vodafone is one of the two leading mobile operators in Portugal with a market share of about 35%, a cellular customer base of 2.6 million, and is part of the Vodafone group.

Comverse's unified messaging solution implements an IP-based distributed architecture and provides an open interface to integrate with any major email server. End-users gain easy access from any device and any location to a central, "one-stop" communications account. With this account, they can send, receive and respond to voice, email and fax messages using any phone (fixed or wireless), PDA or PC.

With the deployment of GPRS and UMTS networks, Comverse's unified messaging solution is evolving to provide a full range of multimedia messaging services (MMS), which allows mobile users to create, send, receive and respond to rich-media messages with audio, pictures, text, animation and streaming video.

Mario Peres, Central Marketing Manager at Vodafone, stated, "The Portuguese market for mobile communications has developed rapidly. We were looking for a proven solution that could be deployed immediately and that would solve our needs for scalability to meet expected demand. We expect that Comverse's IP-based unified messaging, already recognized internationally as the leader in its field, will help us maintain our competitive edge in the Portuguese mobile market."

Zeev Bregman, Chief Executive Officer of Comverse, stated, "Comverse's unified messaging solution provides comprehensive functionality and enriches the offerings available to service providers. We are proud that Vodafone in Portugal chose to join over 45 wireless and wireline operators worldwide who selected our unified messaging solution. We look forward to working with Vodafone to enable the deployment of this additional service to its fast-growing subscriber base and to contribute to increased network usage."

About Vodafone -- Portugal

Vodafone is a leading private provider of mobile telecommunications services in Portugal. Operating a nationwide cellular network based on the GSM digital standard, it was one of the first operators in the world to offer GSM services. Vodafone started GSM network operations on October 1992. By the end of 1993 it had about 40,000 subscribers. That figure climbed rapidly to 1.3 million by the end of 1998. Vodafone's network currently covers approximately 100% of mainland Portugal's population, also serving the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo and the Azores. The company provides coverage outside Portugal that is provided by roaming agreements with 215 operators in 104 countries and territories. Vodafone was the first Portuguese operator to offer a number of new products and services, including Short Message Service, Voice Mail with intelligent message notification and access to an on-line banking service. In 1996 Telecel introduced "Vitamina T", a renewable prepaid service requiring no monthly subscription fee. It has since launched a range of services under the Vitamina brand that now accounts for about 75% of its entire customer-base.

About Comverse

Comverse, a unit of Comverse Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:CMVT) is the world's leading provider of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communications services. More than 375 wireless and wireline telecommunications network operators, in more than 100 countries, have selected Comverse's enhanced services systems and software, which enable the provision of revenue-generating value-added services including call answering with one-touch call return, short messaging services, IP-based unified messaging (voice, fax, and email in a single mailbox), 2.5G/3G multimedia messaging (MMS), wireless instant messaging, wireless data and Internet-based services, voice-controlled dialing, messaging and browsing, prepaid wireless services, and additional personal communication services. Other Comverse Technology business units include: Comverse Infosys, a world leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of intelligent digital voice, video and data recording and content management applications for the security, surveillance, law enforcement and contact center markets; and Ulticom, a leading provider of service enabling network software for wireless, wireline, and Internet communications. Comverse Technology is an S&P 500 and NASDAQ-100 Index company. For additional information, visit the Comverse web site at http://www.comverse.com.

Note to Editors: All product and company names mentioned herein may be registered trademarks or trademarks of Comverse or the respective referenced company(s).