AIRWIDE SOLUTIONS ENHANCES VODACOM'S MESSAGING INFRASTRUCTURE

London, UK. - November 25, 2004 -airwidesolutions, a global provider of innovative messaging and content delivery management solutions, in conjunction with leading business and technology integrator, Atos Origin, is working with Vodacom South Africa to increase the operator's messaging capabilities during peak times and festive periods.

airwide will enhance Vodacom's current messaging infrastructure through its short message service centre, air'n'able text which will allow Vodacom to connect more WASPs and SMPP connections, providing a more robust channel to cope with large volumes of messaging traffic. airwide will also deploy its messaging gateway,airgate to Vodacom to give content providers easy access and total control of their message through puts and addressing requirements.

airgate forms part of airwide solutions' integrated messaging architecture which enables services and content to be added more rapidly, and gives different content providers and subscribers access to flexible qualities of service for their specific messaging needs.

Vodacom Director for Engineering Johan Engelbrecht commented, "Messaging is an integral part of Vodacom's business, and is an area of huge growth potential for us. Our aim is to capitalise on periods of high traffic such as New Year's Eve to drive ARPU and promote our messaging services. By working with airwide, we have been able to upgrade our system, and establish a foundation for future messaging activities."
airwidesolutions VP of EMEA Sales and Business Development,Martin Williams commented, "South Africa boasts the largest and most developed telecommunications network in Africa, and its users are increasingly becoming more mobile savvy. As market leader, it is important for Vodacom to implement solutions into its network that not only demonstrate its forward thinking, but that resonate with its customer base and deliver profitability.

"This is our 10th year working with Vodacom and we look forward to continuing the partnership over the coming years," added Williams.

Atos Origin CEO for Africa, Alain Michel concluded, "Vodacom is Africa's leading network operator and is setting the standard for mobile communications in this region. We are proud to be working with them to deliver a leading-edge messaging infrastructure."

airwide solutions offers a complete messaging infrastructure to mobile operators worldwide.

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For further information please contact:

Americas
Nicole Gruslin
airwide solutions
Email: nicole.gruslin@airwidesolutions.com
Telephone: 1 (450) 646 4163
Mobile: 1 (514) 581 1373

Europe:
Tanya Pedashenko or Clare Gayner
Email: tpedashenko@golinharris.com or cgayner@golinharris.com
Telephone: +44 207 067 0630 or +44 207 067 0608

About airwide solutions

airwidesolutions, headquartered in Reading, UK, was founded on July 26, 2004 following the acquisition of Schlumberger Messaging Solutions (MSG) by Taral Networks. The company provides innovative messaging and content delivery management solutions to over 75 wireless operators, content providers and aggregators around the world. Core products include SMSC, MMSC, MMS push and router gateways, Value-Added-Services (VAS) management and Intelligent Networking Applications.

About Atos Origin

Atos Origin offers multinational clients a full range of IT services and solutions in 50 countries around the world, covering Consulting, Systems Integration and Managed Operations. The company has combined annual revenues today in excess of EUR 5 billion per annum and employs over 45,000 staff.

About Vodacom

Vodacom is a pan-African cellular communications company providing a world class GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) service to some 12 million customers in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Vodacom is the market leader in South Africa, with more than 96% of South Africans now within the coverage area of its impressive 5 000 base station cellular network.