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Sonim Technologies, Inc: TNS telecoms research finds voice-based instant



Cannes, France, Feb 18, 2003 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- Sonim Technologies, Inc. (www.sonimtech.com), the leader in enabling today's wireless data networks to deliver high-margin voice services, today announced the results of a multi-nation market research study on voice-based instant communications services including Push-To-Talk.

The study, conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), Europe's leading market research agency, points to a significant incremental revenue opportunity for European mobile operators delivering innovative voice services over today's GPRS/EDGE and tomorrow's W-CDMA networks. Sonim has deployed these services using an IMS-compliant architecture, recently endorsed as a standard by Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens.

For wireless users, Push-to-Talk offers a new means of communicating with one or many individuals at the push of a button on a wireless device. With Push-To-Talk services, users are able to view presence information of their friends and colleagues, to instantly connect in "walkie-talkie" mode with one or many of them or to leave voice messages without calling them. The Sonim Instant Communications solution also enables Direct Message Service, with which a user can select one or many individuals in the wireless device's contact list, create a voice message of any length and send it instantly at the push of a button. As a recipient of a Direct Message, the user is alerted of a new voice message and can retrieve that message instantly without calling its voicemail service.

The multi-month qualitative market research study, conducted by senior research professionals from TNS, took place in multiple countries including the United Kingdom and Italy. The focus group methodology included consumers in multiple segments including teens, young adults and families, and in-depth interviews with business users, such as working professionals in small to medium enterprises (SME's). Both Push-To-Talk and Direct Message Service received significant levels of interest across all user segments, particularly among youth and working professionals.

"We have researched several 2.5/3G concepts, and I think it's fair to say that finding a data service that resonates with both SMEs as well as mass-market consumers is quite a challenge," said Ben Lovejoy, head of qualitative research at TNS Telecoms. "However, with voice-based services like Push-To-Talk delivered over GPRS/EDGE, all segments of the market were able to see immediate value in what is essentially a data-based service. In fact, this is the first set of data applications that we have seen that generate as much interest and excitement as SMS."

"SMEs were very excited about the improved efficiency and productivity offered by Push-To-Talk, especially the ability to connect simultaneously with multiple employees," continued Lovejoy. "One often-heard response during research was 'Finally, I can set up a meeting with a group of people without wasting time calling each person - we are all connected instantly, can all agree on a time and place to meet with just one call,'" said Lovejoy.

With regards Sonim's Direct Message Service, the application was greeted with significant enthusiasm by all segments. "It was particularly surprising to find equal interest from heavy and light SMS consumer users. Heavy users see it as an additional means of communication, but with richer functionality and greater emotion, while light users welcomed the ease of use compared to what they perceive as the primary drawback of text messaging - the difficulty of typing on small keypad," said Lovejoy.

"Though voice messaging services like Push-To-Talk are well-proven in North America, we are very excited that this research indicates that Europe presents an enormous revenue potential for both business and consumer markets," said John Burns, president and CEO of Sonim Technologies. "We are even more excited to hear that mobile users equally, if not more, appreciate the value-added service features such as the presence-enabled contact list and Direct Message Service offered by Sonim. Most mobile operators are challenged to increase the proportion of data revenues as well as deliver superior profitability. Along comes Push-To-Talk, a voice service that's deployed over today's data networks that achieves both goals - high potential usage as well as significant margins."

In the research, Consumers indicated that they would gladly pay as much if not more than SMS for these voice messaging services, and the indications here are that the overall impact will be a significant incremental revenue opportunity for the networks. "Without a doubt, these services are going to make money for operators," said Lovejoy.

"This research strengthens our belief that voice-based instant communications services like Push-T-Talk and Direct Message Service will be used by most, if not all customer segments," said Rahul Khanna, Senior Director of Marketing for Sonim. "We've spent the last three years perfecting an IMS-compliant solution for Push-To-Talk with the hopes that we could enable a broad base of handsets for multiple customer segments. Yesterday's announcement from Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens supporting an IMS-based Push-To-Talk architecture validates our efforts and ensures that mobile operators can now confidently deploy our solution."

About Sonim Technologies, Inc.

Sonim Technologies enables today's wireless data networks to deliver high-margin voice services. This standards-based solution provides real-time communication services such as Push-To-Talk that combine the flexibility of mobile messaging with the ease-of-use of voice. The end-to-end, IP-based solution creates significant new revenue streams and delivers superior "return on bandwidth" for mobile operators.

Sonim is headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., with sales and engineering offices in Italy, the United Kingdom, and India. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.sonimtech.com http://www.sonimtech.com>.

Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Kirsten Brundahl, Bock Communications, Inc. Tel: [phone] x 24 Fax: [phone] e-mail: [e-mail]

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