STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 24, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Vodafone Sweden: it should be simple and fun to use your mobile phone. This is the starting point for Swedish Vodafone as it now launches two new concepts that are part of its largest initiative ever, focusing on mobile services. "Vodafone live!" for private consumers and Vodafone Mobile Office for corporate customers. The services will be packaged together with specially designed mobile phones that will include all the necessary settings when the customer receives them.
"Up until today, we operators have focused too strongly on technology -- both in our current customer offerings and in our communication. Vodafone live! and Vodafone Mobile Office enable us to take a fresh approach that will make it easy and attractive to use all the new services on offer in today's mobile datacoms network. At the same time, we are laying the foundations for packaging and distributing services once we get our 3G network up and running," said Jon Risfelt, President and CEO of Vodafone Sweden.
"The key to being able to offer simple and attractive services lies in even closer collaboration with hardware suppliers, operators and service developers so that we can together develop and integrate our service offerings. Both these new concepts are based on this idea. The customer benefits take the form of access to simpler, better services, while we in the industry can be more active drivers of society's mobile developments," continued Risfelt.
Vodafone live!
Vodafone's new concept for consumers, Vodafone live!, capitalizes on all the multimedia and mobile communication possibilities currently offered by mobile telephony.
"All services in Vodafone live! make full use of colour, sound, pictures and text, and the service offering is integrated with the market's very latest camera-equipped mobile phones via Vodafone Sweden's own software. The camera-equipped phones initially included in the concept are the Panasonic GD87 and Nokia 7650," said Goran Mannerstrale, Director of Consumer Affairs at Vodafone.
Sold in one pack, (can't get any simpler) customers will be able to buy the service offering and camera-equipped phones for Vodafone live! at stores and they come in a single pack. This means that customers won't have to install any settings themselves to enable them to use the services in Vodafone live! It's all preprogrammed at the time of purchase.
Broad spectrum of services
Vodafone live! includes a whole spectrum of services. The communication services include Vodafone MMS, allowing customers to send and receive messages with text, sound and pictures, and a messaging service that enables them to receive e-mail directly to their mobile phones. News, sport, music and games will also be offered in collaboration with content partners such as Aftonbladet. The service offering includes a great deal of content that can be downloaded to the mobile phone, such as polyphonic ring signals and ready-made pictures.
Optimized terminals
The mobile phones included in the concept have been optimized for the range of colour, sound, text and picture services in Vodafone live! Both the Panasonic GD87 and the Nokia 7650 have a built-in camera, colour display and icon-based navigation system, and they also allow permanent connection to the mobile datacoms network.
Icon-based interface
The telephones for Vodafone live! have been equipped with Vodafone Sweden's own easy-to-use, icon-based user interface that functions in parallel with the telephone's own menu system. All telephones covered by the offers have been pre-programmed for Vodafone Sweden's use interface.
Vodafone Mobile Office
Vodafone Mobile Office is Vodafone Sweden's new concept for corporate customers. In time it will include a number of voice and data services tailored to the needs of the corporate world's global mobile work environment.
The first service in Vodafone Mobile Office is Vodafone Remote Access. This service enables companies to connect to their local networks simply and securely via current mobile datacoms networks from laptops. It will enable the companies' employees to access e-mail, the Internet, intranet and other business-critical information at the company at any time and in any place.
"Vodafone Mobile Office is the world's largest mobile office where we provide our customers with access to a multitude of data and voice services in several European countries. It's as easy to connect up in the UK as in Sweden if you want, for example, to gain access to the company intranet. The services have also been specially designed with an eye on simplicity and security, and they are very easy to install and use," said Anders Sjoholm, Commercial Director of Corporate and Telematics.
Both Vodafone live! and Vodafone Remote Access will be launched before Christmas.
For more information, please contact: Jon Risfelt, President and CEO +46 708 33 10 01 e-mail: jon.risfelt@vodafone.se Goran Mannerstrale, Director of Consumer Affairs Telephone +46 708 33 18 45 e-mail: goran.mannerstrale@vodafone.se Anders Sjoholm, Commercial Director, Corporate Telematics +46 708 33 10 22 e-mail: anders.sjoholm@vodafone.se
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