Comverse Multi-National Market Research Reaffirms Wireless Subscriber Interest In New InSight-Powered Enhanced Messaging Services

Business Wire, March 17, 2003

Business Editors

CTIA Wireless 2003

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2003

InSight-Powered Enhanced Messaging Applications For 2.5G And 3G

Wireless Networks Exhibit Strong Consumer Interest

Comverse, a unit of Comverse Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: CMVT), and the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communication services, today released the results of research conducted in four countries, that demonstrates strong consumer interest in using new InSight-powered Total Communication enhanced messaging and infotainment services.

The new InSight services will be demonstrated at the Comverse Booth (2245) at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless Convention in New Orleans March 17-19, 2003.

New applications made possible by InSight's open environment integrating voice and data and services for 2.5/3G networks underwent consumer testing in selected countries around the world.

The test groups experienced four of the new InSight services:

-- Multimedia Mobile Email

-- Record and Send

-- Visual Voicemail

-- Voicemail Infotainment

The results of the multi-national cross section of respondents (from Germany, Taiwan, USA, and UK) demonstrate a compelling market case for the new InSight-powered services:

-- 76% of respondents exhibited interest in using Multimedia

Email service. Additional interest was expressed in being able

to open attachments on the handset, such as pictures, photos,

graphics, videos, Word(TM) documents, music, spreadsheets

(e.g. Excel(TM)) and presentations (e.g. PowerPoint(TM)).

-- 71% of respondents would use Record and Send to compose and

direct voice messages. Many respondents compare Record and

Send favorably to the SMS text messaging experience.

-- 72% of respondents said they were "interested" or "very

interested" in using Visual Voicemail. Specifically cited

anticipated benefits included the ease of using a visual

interface, the ability to listen to and manage messages in any

chosen order and single-keypress "reply" and "forward"

functionality.

-- 57% of respondents expressed interest in receiving Voicemail

Infotainment messages on various topics of interest to them.

Other noteworthy results show that users indicated they would consider switching operators or handsets to gain access to these new services. For example, when asked "Assuming that everything were equal, if your current operator did not offer Multimedia Mobile Email and another operator did, would you switch?," 41% of the respondents responded that they would.

Ramesh Barasia, President of Comverse Americas, said, "These research results suggest significant market demand for a richer mobile experience that takes advantage of new voice/data and handset technology in a user-friendly way to improve people's everyday lives. Our research also suggests that subscribers are eager for attractive new enhanced services and appear to be prepared to pay for a wide range of benefits. The results are good news for operators looking for new revenue streams and tangible benefits from their 2.5 and 3G investments."

Comverse makes extensive use of end-user market research to determine how best to create services that attain maximum mass-market attractiveness. The current research was conducted by MORPACE International Ltd, in Germany, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Study participants experienced demos of the new services and then responded to surveys designed to measure interest in using these services. Findings around the globe show that new InSight-powered services exhibit strong consumer appeal.

About the InSight-Based Services Tested

-- Multimedia Mobile Email: A PC-like inbox with familiar

colorful icons facilitates easy handling of email messages and

attachments, including Microsoft Word(TM) documents,

PowerPoint(TM) presentations, and video and audio files.

-- Record and Send: Users send voice messages directly to any

person or group (whether or not they are voicemail

subscribers) without interrupting them or causing their phones

to ring. Record and Send notifies the called party of the new

message, which can be accessed directly, through a single

button.

-- Visual Voicemail: A colorful information-rich visual inbox

transforms voicemail into an attractive, intuitive email-like

experience with easy message handling.

-- Voicemail Infotainment: High-quality audio infotainment

messages -- with interactive capability -- are delivered to

the voice mailbox from desired community, infotainment and

direct marketing content providers (news, sports, traffic,

weather, finance, humor, celebrity news and gossip, payment

and personal reminders, last minute special sale offers, etc.)

About InSight

Comverse InSight environment for next-generation services utilizes a modular, standards-based, open IP architecture that integrates data network and smart handset capabilities. Core components, including multimedia message storage, address book, media and presence servers, and subscriber profile database serve all associated applications. InSight's enhanced multimodal user experience, which is cohesive across voice and data services, provides an attractive single point of access to all types of messages and personal files. InSight creates a pioneering environment that enables rapid deployment of new, exciting Total Communication, enhanced messaging and infotainment services for individuals, groups and communities supplied by Comverse and third parties.