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CELLULAR SOUTH CAPITALIZES ON RAPID GROWTH FOR TEXT MESSAGING WITH AIRWIDE'S TIERED ARCHITECTURE

After 300 percent SMS increase in two years, largest independent mobile operator in the U.S. to deploy Airwide routers, storage and gateways

BURLINGTON, Mass. and READING, U.K. - March 27, 2007 - Airwide Solutions, the leading provider of mobile messaging infrastructure and applications, today announced that Cellular South is deploying AirMessenger Routers, AirMessenger Store, and AirGate gateways to handle massive growth in customer use of text messaging. This tiered architecture, coupled with Airwide AirManager CDMA OTA (over the air) and AirManager Reporting for message traffic analysis will help Cellular South continue to strengthen its position as the largest independent mobile operator in the U.S.

Since 2004, Cellular South has seen its messaging traffic increase by 300 percent, 50 percent in 2006 alone. Greg Latour, the company's senior vice president of technology development, attributes this growth to Cellular South's $7.99 per month unlimited text messaging service, which has become widely popular among young adults, teens and their parents.

"Our previous system for managing the high volume of text messages was not providing the flexibility or capacity we needed to accommodate the significant demand increase from our customers," said Latour. "After a thorough evaluation of different technologies, we chose Airwide's tiered architecture because it provides Cellular South with a reliable and scalable solution upon which we can grow our popular text messaging products."

A tiered infrastructure

Cellular South first deployed AirMessenger Routers to alleviate high storage demands resulting from the increased messaging traffic. AirMessenger Routers provide intelligent traffic distribution and first delivery attempt of messages (rather than automatically storing them) to eliminate the congestion and throughput issues associated with traditional SMSCs. The company then deployed AirMessenger Store to provide dynamic messaging storage of those messages that couldn't be delivered on the first attempt. Together with AirMessenger Router, AirMessenger Store gives Cellular South the first two tiers of an intelligent infrastructure that distributes messaging traffic quickly and efficiently. AirMessenger Store saves Cellular South money by eliminating the cost of connecting to the network via expensive, low-throughput SS7 connections. Instead, the storage device connects to AirMessenger Router via high-throughput IP connections that also allow Cellular South to scale quickly and affordably.

AirGate messaging gateway is another tier of Cellular South's messaging infrastructure. AirGate will allow Cellular South to securely connect its infrastructure to different text and value-added services. It will also ensure Cellular South can effectively manage the content provided by third-party mobile value-added service providers (VASPs) to prevent unwanted traffic reaching subscribers.

To accelerate provisioning without forcing subscribers to drive to stores, Cellular South will deploy AirManager OTA. The company will be able to provision customers over the air, saving money in typical in-person provisioning costs. The operator will also minimize the costs of constantly managing ever-changing roaming lists as AirManager OTA automates this process.

Cellular South will analyze messaging traffic in real time to ensure maximum uptime and quick resolution to subscriber problems with AirManager Reporting. Now the company will be able to see up-to-the-minute status information about the infrastructure, identify troubling traffic patterns and plan ahead for anticipated spikes.

"Cellular South is taking a holistic approach to delivering on its promise to subscribers," said Airwide CTO Vince Kadar. "It has a winning formula for its messaging offering, and customer demand has skyrocketed. Deploying Airwide's suite of products gives it a tiered architecture to grow its service offerings, traffic capacity and revenues, now and in the future."

About Cellular South

Since 1999, Cellular South has invested more than $500 million in its network infrastructure to improve call quality and coverage, and further increase capacity for data usage, including text and picture messaging, accessing the Internet, sending and receiving email and downloading music. In 2006 alone, the company invested nearly $100 million in network and technology enhancements throughout Mississippi, including 200 new cellular sites, a high-speed wireless broadband network (EV-DO), a permanent microwave ring for redundancy across the Gulf Coast region and the construction a brand new, state-of-the-art Technical Operations Center in the heart of Jackson, Miss.

About Airwide Solutions

Airwide Solutions is the innovation leader in next-generation mobile messaging infrastructure and applications. Its products allow more than 80 wireless operators in 46 countries to deliver and manage the millions of mobile messages their subscribers send every day. With a history of industry firsts - including the first text message ever sent and the introduction of the first SMS router and A2P MMS push gateway - the company continues to pioneer new technologies. Airwide's open Fusion architecture offers mobile operators more revenue options and a practical pathway to Mobile Messaging 2.0, while giving subscribers more messaging choices.

Airwide Solutions operates globally with offices in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and Africa. For more information about Airwide Solutions, please visit www.airwidesolutions.com.

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For further information please contact:

Carrie O'Neil
Beaupre & Co. Public Relations
Email: coneil@beaupre.com
Tel: 603-559-5813

Elena Dunn
Skywrite Communications
Email: airwide@skywritecomms.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7608 4646