Vodafone UK Partners With Novarra to Bring Mobile Internet to Its Customers

Vodafone UK Partners With Novarra to Bring Mobile Internet to Its Customers

June 15, 2007

Industry's First Integrated Portal, Search and Internet
Service Across 150+ Handsets

    CHICAGO, June 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Novarra, the
leading provider of next-generation mobile Internet
platforms and services, announces that its Vision(TM)
server version 6.5 is the content transformation platform
used by Vodafone UK's Vodafone Mobile Internet service. 
Vodafone UK customers can now access the breadth of the
Internet with a rich mobile user experience, without
requiring a change to their existing handsets.

    Novarra has worked with Vodafone UK to present
consumers with a customized seamless integration of portal,
search and the Internet. This simple and intuitive service
will be immediately available to millions of Vodafone
customers.

    From the outset, the service will be available on more
than 150 Vodafone UK handsets through the Vision platform
that fully supports the range of industry handsets and WAP
or HTML browsers. Vodafone Mobile Internet customers can
now select the "www" tab or the Google search
field for a rich web experience powered by Novarra's
transformation solution. 

    Novarra's Vision server automatically transforms the
web to fit handset specific capabilities such as screen and
memory and dramatically reduces mobile network bandwidth
required to support rich Internet traffic. This delivers
optimal speed, presentation, usability and content quality
across mass-market handsets and high-tier handsets with
full HTML browsers. 

    The service delivers a customized, integrated
navigation experience that links the portal with the
Internet. Advanced features like Snapshot(TM) zoom and
enhanced content prioritization provide visual richness and
speed, while minimizing the number of clicks for each
consumer web session.  Other capabilities include full
support for WAP, Mobile Favorites and personalization
features. 

    "Vodafone live!'s success has been due to the
breadth of content and user experience.  Vodafone Mobile
Internet is the next step in satisfying consumer
demand," said Al Russell, Head of Mobile Internet
& Content at Vodafone UK. "We firmly believe that
an intuitive user experience is the cornerstone of consumer
uptake and usage. After extensive testing and evaluation, we
chose to partner with Novarra for the most advanced user
experience combined with the platform scalability and
performance we require."

    "Our partnership with Vodafone UK represents a
critical tipping point in the uptake of true mobile
Internet. There is clear demand from a very large
population of users," stated Bruce Simpson, COO at
Novarra. "Our global operator deployments provide
valuable insights into consumer usage patterns and portal
integration. Mobile and desktop web usage are similar but
there are differences. The 'long tail' represents more than
70% of the traffic but mobile-relevant usage is also
emerging."

    Novarra's innovative server-based architecture for
Internet and portal services has gained broad industry
acceptance and proven consumer adoption. Designed
specifically for rich Internet content, it dramatically
reduces network bandwidth and equally supports mass-market
and high tier handsets. Novarra's Vision server platform is
the most advanced carrier-grade solution for content
transformation, combining the benefits of content
adaptation, payload reduction, acceleration and
optimization in a single platform.  With open standards,
operators are able to integrate with existing portal,
network and billing infrastructure within weeks. 

    Novarra's full browsers and micro-clients provide
industry leading performance and mobile usability across
open-OS handsets.

    About Novarra

    Novarra is the leading provider of high performance
next-generation wireless platforms for operators and
content providers to create new Internet-based services and
revenue streams. Novarra developed the industry's first
server-client architecture for web content transformation
and network optimization designed for mass-market, high
volume mobile consumer deployments. Operators select
Novarra's open standards-based platforms to deliver a
superior mobile user experience for services like full rich
web, search, premium portals and personalization. 
Successful commercial deployments over 5 years on both 2.5G
and 3G have established significant consumer satisfaction
and uptake. http://www.novarra.com/ 

    Novarra, Snapshot(TM) and Vision(TM) are trademarks of
Novarra, Inc.

    For more information:

    Europe:
     Annie Woodhead / Alexis Dalrymple
     Hotwire PR
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail] /
[e-mail] 

    North America:
     Doug Haslam
     Topaz Partners
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

    Vodafone UK Consumer Press Release
  
http://www.vodafone.com/start/media_relations/news/local_press_releases/uk_press_releases/2007/vodafone_mobile_internet.html