LONDON-Acotel, the Italian wireless application service provider, has acquired Info2cell.com, the Middle East’s first wireless applications service provider.
Acotel’s first acquired a 33-percent stake in Info2cell.com in 2000. Following the complete acquisition of the company, Acotel has linked the Info2cell.com development center in Jordan to its own development centers in Beirut and Rome.
Under the terms of the deal, Info2cell.com’s management will remain the same and continue to handle Acotel’s operations in the region. Acotel currently offers personalized, wireless value-added services to more than 35 million subscribers through partnerships with other wireless network operations in Europe and Latin America. This latest acquisition will enable it to offer similar services in the Middle East.
“The Middle East market carries a huge potential for the development of messaging services in view of the dramatic increase in the number of mobile phones and buoyant projections for future growth,” commented Claudio Carnevale, chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Acotel.
“We are delighted to enter the market at a time when the convergence between the PC and the mobile phone has triggered a new generation of services, including Jinny Instant Messaging (JIM), which has been developed by Acotel to support [messaging]. JIM allows subscribers with mobile phones to connect to the JIM platform using SMS, WAP, J2ME or through a PDA (personal digital assistant) or PC,” he continued.
