Ericsson, Aircel Sign Push Email Contract

Ericsson, one of the world's leading technology providers, Friday announced its first contract for delivery of consumer push email service to Indian operator Aircel.

Aircel, part of the Maxis Communications group, is India's fifth largest GSM mobile service provider with a subscriber base of over 9.5 million.

Aircel operates in nine telecom circles – Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, North East, Orissa and West Bengal – and holds licenses for the remaining 14 of the 23 telecom circles in India.

According to the three-year managed services hosting agreement, Ericsson will have end-to-end responsibility for the consumer push email service.

This includes systems integration and management, as well as operation and maintenance. Integration of the service has already begun, and commercial launch is scheduled soon after March 2008.

Ericsson's service is based on SMS/MMS messaging and enables users to send/receive email from POP3 accounts to their mobile phones.

Its multi-account capability, and the fact that there's no need for subscribers to download and install a client, ensures great potential for mass adoption, said Rohit Chandra, executive director of Aircel.

"Keeping the subscriber engaged with value-added services is increasingly becoming a focus area for all operators," he explained. "Ericsson is a long-standing partner and its expertise and clear understanding of our needs make it the right choice for this project."

We are proud to be working with Aircel," said Mats Granryd, Ericsson India chief. "It also sets the stage for further hosting deployments that deliver value added services."

Hosting is part of Ericsson's managed services offering and gives operators quick, easy and cost-efficient access to best in class services, allowing them to focus on their core business.

Founded in 1876 and with this year's revenue reaching $27.9 billion, Ericsson is the market leader in 2G and 3G mobile technologies. It supplies communications services and manages networks that serve more than 185 million subscribers.

The Sony Ericsson joint venture provides consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.