ICQ Announces Agreements With Wireless Carriers

[BigBlueBall News]

Press Release

February 18, 2003

ICQ Gaining Momentum Around The World; Over 40 Million Subscribers of International Carriers Can Now Reach 150 Million ICQ Users

Agreements Enable Subscribers to Send and Receive ICQ Messages Anywhere, Anytime from Various Mobile Devices

Dulles, VA, and Cannes, France - February 18, 2003 -- ICQ ("I Seek You"), a world leading online communications community and international service from America Online, Inc., today announced that several global wireless carriers are using ICQ wireless messaging services, enabling their subscribers to communicate in real time via wireless devices with contacts who are using ICQ around the world. International companies that are using ICQ wireless services include Cellcom in Israel, E-Plus of Germany, FarEasTone in Taiwan, the Netherlands’s KPN Mobile, Rogers AT&T Wireless in Canada, Singapore’s SingTel, Smart in the Philippines and Australia’s Telstra Corporation. In addition, ICQ® Lite, the company’s latest instant messaging product, is available for free download in 19 languages.

ICQ has pioneered the use of multiple technologies in the wireless arena, and its powerful suite of services for mobile devices includes ICQ® 2 Way SMS (Short Messaging Service), ICQ® for SMS, ICQ® for WAP (Wireless Access Protocol), ICQ® for the J2METM Platform, ICQ® for i-modeTM and the ICQ® for the Symbian OS version. With these products, ICQ is connecting its vast global community to subscribers of wireless carriers worldwide.

"With international Internet usage increasing rapidly and users relying more and more on wireless devices, ICQ is committed to providing its customers throughout the world with technology that allows instant and seamless communications across geographic boundaries," said Ariel Yarnitsky, co-General Manager of ICQ. "We look forward to further extending our ICQ Anywhere strategy, making it even more convenient for users to stay in touch with their friends and family."

"ICQ is an example of a truly convergent service as it is not dependent of whether you are on the phone, computer or PDA," said Andrew Buay, SingTel’s Vice President of Consumer Marketing. "This empowers our customers to be active users of the service rather than passive recipients of messages."

"ICQ and i-modeTM are a great match - perfectly tuned to the needs of our customers, who want to be in direct contact with their world and the people who are important to them," said Ludolf Rasterhoff, Director of Mass Market for KPN Mobile. "The introduction of this tremendously popular service shows how i-modeTM continues to bring the Internet and mobile worlds together."

"Our customers are always looking for new and innovative ways to keep in touch as they become more mobile. ICQ® for SMS will give our customers the freedom of staying connected with those most important to them, without the need to access a computer," said Rick Wakeham, Telstra Consumer and Marketing Chief of Products.

Global wireless carriers are using ICQ wireless services to implement a wide-range of solutions for their subscribers:

• Cellcom is Israel’s leading wireless operator and has launched the ICQ® 2 Way SMS and ICQ® SMS products, with more ICQ wireless products to be rolled out in 2003.


• E-Plus, a leading wireless carrier and pioneer in mobile multimedia in Germany, and KPN Mobile, a leading wireless carrier in the Netherlands, are the first i-modeTM providers in their respective countries, offering access to the ICQ contact list on the phone at a quality previously unheard of in Europe.


• FarEasTone (FET), Taiwan’s leading integrated mobile communication service provider, is using ICQ SMS and ICQ® for WAP-GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) to provide the first Chinese-language ICQ wireless messaging service in the Taiwanese market. In addition, ICQ has recently launched a Chinese version of its site (http://chinese.icq.com).


• Rogers AT&T Wireless is Canada’s leading wireless provider and has been deploying various ICQ wireless services to its customers for over a year.


• Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), a leading integrated communications service provider in Asia Pacific, offers its subscribers the use of ICQ® 2 Way SMS, ICQ® for SMS, ICQ for WAP and soon-to-be deployed ICQ® for the J2METM Platform.


• Smart, the Philippines’ leading wireless services provider, is using ICQ’s messaging service to offer its subscribers the use of ICQ® 2 Way SMS, ICQ for SMS, ICQ® for WAP, including GPRS and ICQ® for the J2METM Platform.


• In Australia, Telstra Corporation is giving its customers the ability to exchange messages with their ICQ friends on their mobile phones via ICQ® for SMS.

Global operators are turning to ICQ software in part for the efforts the company has put into international considerations such as localizing the software in a number of languages. This capability enables ICQ users to view messages as they were meant to be seen, across a variety of font and character set encoding. ICQ has shown its commitment to international users of its software by making its latest desktop product, ICQ Lite, available in 19 languages. They include: Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and soon to be released Arabic and Hebrew. ICQ also maintains an active Web site with a main focus on community activities around ICQ, providing ICQ users worldwide with the ability to send messages using the ICQ messaging center. ICQ users worldwide can also communicate with many tens of millions of subscribers (not necessarily ICQ users) of over 100 wireless networks worldwide by sending messages using the ICQ® 2 Way SMS product.