Colibria Empowers dixiTel with Mobile IM-to-Google Talk Connectivity

Colibria AS, the leading international developer of Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) and Presence solutions, is supplying MIM connectivity with the Google Talk chat service to the innovative telephony provider dixiTel. Danish company dixiTel is deploying Colibria’s XMPP-based server-to-server solution, enabling Google Talk connectivity from within its dixiChat own-brand mobile IM service.

Colibria’s Google Talk connectivity enables subscribers to dixiTel’s fixed-price dixiChat service to enjoy seamless communication with Google Talk’s large and rapidly growing Internet community, with Colibria employing the Jabber/Google Talk protocol for the chat service connectivity. Launched earlier this year in Belgium, the dixiChat service is enabled by Colibria’s end-to-end messaging solution, powered by the Colibria Companion IM and Presence Server. Colibria’s solution incorporates a feature-rich PC client, and also supports numerous downloadable handset clients, including J2ME products.

Keith Gibson, CEO of Colibria, commented:
"Launching Google Talk connectivity is a highly significant and imaginative move by dixiTel, and we expect many other operators to follow dixiTel’s lead. Access to the Internet’s established Instant Messaging communities, such as Google Talk, is essential to achieving the full growth potential of mobile IM. This new service from dixiTel successfully integrates the here-and-now immediacy and convenience of IM into the SMS culture, in an attractive, easy-to-use and highly competitive product that will encourage subscribers to make full use of IM. The ability to exchange instant messages between mobiles and PCs, as well as from mobile to mobile, represents something of a revolution, and is a genuine innovation for social and business communications. Convergence is a much-promised phenomenon, and dixiTel is making this a reality in the messaging arena, to the greater benefit of its subscribers."

Representing a significant extension of the messaging concept, dixiTel’s dixiChat service offers a new level of communication within a mobile package. It allows subscribers to send an unlimited numbers of "dixis", or Instant Messages, for a fixed price, and also allows users to set up their own chat groups, and trace the entire conversation on the mobile. The dixiChat Client can also be downloaded onto a PC, with the service’s automatic routing detecting whether a user is logged on via their mobile or PC, and delivering the message to the most relevant destination. Specifically designed as an intuitive and easy-to-use service, the dixiChat client can show message content in both online and offline modes, supported by status text, as well as the ability to display a Presence picture.

About Colibria Companion IM and Presence Server
The Colibria Companion IM and Presence Server represents a powerful carrier-grade instant messaging and presence enabling solution, capable of delivering certified OMA IMPS and SIP/IMS support. It has unmatched embedded client interoperability, as well as support for legacy clients – SMS, MMS, HTML, XHTML, and WAP. It incorporates a feature-rich PC client, and supports a multitude of downloadable terminal clients, including Symbian, J2ME, iMode, Microsoft Mobile Clients and BREW. Colibria’s IM and Presence platform is an established powerhouse, providing a growing number of mobile operators and strategic partners with a cost-effective, scaleable, and flexible resource on which to base a burgeoning range of compelling enhanced messaging services.

About Mobile Instant Messaging
Instant Messaging is an established phenomenon for PC-based communications, with on-line chat services such as MSN® Messenger, Google Talk or AIM offering large and steadily growing communities. In essence, IM builds on the successful elements of SMS and adds a number of important new dimensions. IM offers communications immediacy, maintaining the non-intrusive nature of SMS as well as offering a more dialogue-focused and interactive medium. It combines the benefits of SMS with near real-time communication and the convenience of one-to-many or many-to-many text-based conversations. IM also represents a personality-building service, enhancing SMS by adding presence information – encompassing personalised images, mood and status text, plus location information – complemented by rapid delivery and the ability to track complete conversations.

MIM, as provided by the Google Talk connectivity within the innovative dixiChat service, makes it easy to share communication between more than two people. This allows voice-free and virtually real-time conversations between large groups of friends. The service concept combines the non-intrusiveness of SMS texting with the convenience and immediacy of the on-line chat services, together with the flexibility and freedom of participating in a dixiChat session from either a mobile handset or a PC. Presence information and the increased speed of communication compared to SMS, added to the greater flexibility and immediacy of the service, has helped to accelerate mobile IM’s rate of growth and its popularity rapidly. dixiTel’s vision in implementing Google Talk connectivity is an important initiative that will help fuel demand further.

About Colibria
Established in 2000, Colibria is a leader in the field of instant messaging and presence systems, with its IM and Presence and Communities solutions deployed by a variety of mobile operators across Europe, Asia and Latin America. Colibria's new generation core network mobile platforms are scalable and flexible solutions that provide the vital infrastructure for advanced presence, messaging, and multimedia services - fully supporting IMPS, as well as ensuring a seamless use of IMPS and SIP for IMS-enabled networks. The company operates from locations in Norway, the UK, the Philippines and Singapore, and is a member of the Open Mobile Alliance, contributing extensively to the OMA IMPS forum. It is also a founding member of the COMET alliance, a global consortium committed to the delivery of end-to-end converged messaging solutions. Colibria’s investors include Northzone Ventures (www.northzone.com), Four Seasons Venture (www.fsv.no), and Ferd Venture (www.ferdventure.no).

For more information, please contact:
Liv Anne Løkka
Colibria AS
Strandveien 15
Postboks 255
1326 Lysaker
Norway
Tel: + 47 67 11 35 00
Fax: + 47 67 11 35 01
Email: lokka@colibria.com
Web: www.colibria.com

Georgina Garrett/Simon Jones
Garrett Axford
Harbour House
27 High Street
Shoreham by Sea
West Sussex
BN43 5DD, UK
Tel: +44 1273 441200
Fax: +44 1273 441300
Email: mail@garrett-axford.co.uk
Web: www.garrett-axford.co.uk