HANNOVER, Germany-Orange plc made several announcements from CeBIT ’99, the European
trade show.
Orange signed an agreement with Nokia Corp. to begin a major trial of its Wireless Application
Protocol Gateway. The Nokia WAP Gateway enables WAP terminals to use WAP services located at Web servers, said
Orange. It is connected to both Global System for Mobile communications and Internet/intranet networks and acts as a
gateway between them. Orange will be testing the Nokia WAP Gateway using Nokia’s recently debuted 7110 media
phone.
Orange entered into an exclusive partnership with Independent Television News for a national and
international news service Orange plans to launch later this year. Using WAP as the core technology, Orange said it
also plans to provide banking, entertainment, traffic and travel information services to its customers in the United
Kingdom. The services will be provided by ITN, Associated News Media, ITIS, Last Minute Network Ltd. and
NatWest.
Orange intends to launch its brand in Germany later this year.
“In Germany, we are working
directly with Hutchison Telecom to create and develop a presence for Orange and although we have not yet made any
firm decisions about how we will launch in Germany, there are a number of attractive opportunities under
consideration,” said Dr. Colin Tucker, chief operating officer and group director of international operations,
Orange.
