Nokia has signed contracts with a further four branches of China Unicom for the supply of the Nokia Artus Messaging Platform, which will bring the possibility of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) services and applications to millions of mobile subscribers in China.
Anhui, Chongqing Hebei and Zhejiang branches of China Unicom have signed agreements to order the Nokia Artus Messaging Platform, which acts as a gateway between information and applications on the Internet and a mobile phone. With WAP, information on the Internet such as news or stock quotes can be accessed in seconds. Equipment deliveries have already begun and the equipment is now being taken into commercial use.
The Shanghai and Guangdong branches of Unicom have also taken the Nokia Artus Messaging Platform into commercial service. China Unicom is the second largest operator in China with more than five million mobile subscribers across China.
"These agreements further Nokia's successful drive to bring WAP services to the booming Chinese market, after Nokia was the first vendor to demonstrate the use of WAP to browse the Internet in Chinese, in November," said Malcolm Arnold, Vice President, System Business, Nokia (China) Investment Co. Ltd.
The Nokia Artus Messaging Platform, including applications and value-added services, can operate with different mobile transport protocols including both circuit switched and packet switched networks. The completion of the trial underlines the competitiveness of Nokia's end-to-end solutions, and with Nokia's comprehensive WAP infrastructure, based on open standards and platforms, this enables the creation of feature-rich secure WAP services addressing both the consumers and business segment Nokia has already sold its Nokia Artus Messaging Platform to approximately 40 mobile operator and ISP customers.
Nokia can offer operators what few others in the industry can; a complete end to-end WAP solution, including WAP gateways, portals, mobile terminals, browsers, tools for WAP-based content creation and delivery, end-user application platforms, and systems integration services. In addition to infrastructure, Nokia Professional Services provides comprehensive service solutions for planning, deploying, managing, and enhancing WAP solutions.
Nokia is paving the way to the mobile information society with its innovative products and solutions. Nokia is the leading mobile phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks including related services. It also supplies multimedia terminals and computer displays. In 1999, net sales totaled EUR 13.3 billion (USD 15.7 billion). Headquartered in Finland, Nokia is listed on the New York (NOK), Helsinki, Stockholm, London, Frankfurt and Paris stock exchanges and employs more than 56 000 people.
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