Colibria Expands European Operation

Colibria makes two senior strategic appointments, as part of its European expansion programme.

Colibria AS, the leading international developer of mobile Instant Messaging and Presence Service (IMPS) technology platforms, announces the appointment of two senior management figures - Simon Taylor as VP Sales, and Paul Kemps as VP Sales Belgium. Simon Taylor will be responsible for heading up the sales operation in the UK, expanding Colibria's strategic account teams in line with the growing take-up for Colibria's instant messaging and presence solutions. Paul Kemps is based in Brussels, establishing the company's latest European regional office. Following this expansion, Colibria has extended its global presence significantly, with offices now established in Oslo, the Philippines, Brussels and the UK.

Colibria's carrier-grade Colibria Companion Instant Messaging (IM) and Presence Server technology is rapidly establishing itself as the market's most advanced platform, reporting that around 100 different mobile operators, service providers, applications developers and client vendors are now using Colibria's IMPS Test Server on a regular basis, to test new presence and IMPS-related concepts and applications.

Commenting on Colibria's latest corporate developments, CEO Keith Gibson said: "We are delighted to welcome Simon Taylor and Paul Kemps to the Colibria team at this exciting time for the company. They both have a wealth of experience that will be essential as we expand Colibria's global activities further in the coming months. In the UK, Simon will be focusing on building our core strategic account team, and we believe that his particular experience in working with European and global telcos will be invaluable. Paul's specific blend of mobile telecoms expertise and long-standing relationships with key partners is also pivotal, as Colibria cements a wide cross-section of strategic partnerships in the coming months. The concept of presence technology is now firmly established as the means for mobile operators to offer important new differentiators in terms of services. Colibria's focus is to ensure that our platform remains the technology of choice, as operators move to launch innovative presence-based services in the coming months."

The Colibria Companion is a scalable, flexible and future-proof solution that supports advanced presence, messaging and multimedia services. Enabling rapid and economical rollouts, it provides mobile operators with the means to build new ARPU-increasing revenue streams. The Colibria Companion is a standardised platform that supports seamless, efficient network and service evolution. A proven solution with an international customer base, including Globe Telecom in the Philippines, the Colibria Companion was recently selected by Saunalahti Group Oyj - the fastest growing MVNO in Finland - for the first Nordic IMPS service.

The Colibria Companion delivers certified OMA WV and SIP support for presence, instant messaging, groups, shared content and core features, and comprises the full range of core components. These include Presence server; Instant Messaging server; Instant Messaging Gateway (MSN, AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ); Groups server; IMPS PC and Mobile Clients; Communities and Blogs server and clients; and Chat server. Powerful presence interfaces and APIs can be used to share presence information between multiple applications, over and above core Instant Messaging functionality. This supports existing and new applications that use presence information more intelligently, enhancing standard telecom services - for example, SMS, MMS, voice calls, games and communities, where the emphasis is on meeting new friends and encouraging group interaction, and on maintaining efficient contact with staff and work colleagues.

About Colibria
Established in 2000, Colibria is a technology leader in the field of instant messaging and presence systems, with its IMPS and Communities solutions widely deployed by a variety of mobile operators - including Cable & Wireless, Enitel, Globe Telecom, Megatel, Saunalahti, Telefonica Moviles and Telenor Mobil - in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Colibria's newgeneration core network mobile platforms are scalable and flexible solutions that provide the vital infrastructure for advanced presence, messaging, and multimedia services - fully supporting IMPS today, as well as ensuring a seamless use of IMPS and SIP for future IMS-enabled networks. Colibria's new generation carrier-grade IM and presence servers are designed to provide operators with a future-proof pathway to support network and service evolution.

The company operates from locations in Norway, the Philippines, Belgium and the UK, and is a member of the Open Mobile Alliance, contributing extensively to the OMA WV IMPS forum. Colibria is highly active in interoperability testing, and provides server test access to the major OMA IMPS client vendors.

For more information, please contact:
Liv Anne Løkka
Colibria AS
5/F Lysaker Torg
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