INDUSTRY LEADERS BACK SERVER INTEROPERABILITY FOR INSTANT MESSAGING AND PRESENCE SERVICES

Montreal, Canada - March 3, 2004 - Major industry players have today reinforced their endorsement of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Server-Server Protocol (SSP), as defined in OMA IMPS 1.1 and 1.2 Enabler Releases, to allow seamless interoperability between different Instant Messaging and Presence Services (IMPS) servers. With the growth and evolution of presence-enabled applications and services, a greater cooperation amongst industry players is required to facilitate the adoption of those services by the consumers. Openness - open standards in particular - continues to be an important building block to avoid a fragmentation of the Instant Messaging and Presence services.

The companies endorsing the protocol are: ACL Wireless, Colibria, Comverse, Ericsson, Followap, MessageVine, Nokia and OZ Communications. The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) has defined a set of specifications for IMPS, which cover, for example, the client server protocol (CSP) and the Server-Server Protocol (SSP).

The Client-Server Protocol provides Presence-enabled or Instant Messaging clients access to Instant Messaging and Presence Services servers. Server-Server Protocol provides the communication and interaction means between different Instant Messaging and Presence Services domains or different service providers. Each of the companies believes that mobile operators and consumers will benefit from the deployment of SSP as the open standard for server-server interoperability. Mobile subscribers will be able to use Instant Messaging and Presence-enabled services with their friends or colleagues across various operators' domains. Service interoperability between operators is a key factor for commercial deployment success and revenues.

As of today, several clients and servers have been launched implementing those CSP and SSP interfaces. The successful interoperability resulting from those open specifications are tested in regular interoperability testing events under the OMA supervision.

About OZ

OZ is leading the development of standards-based mobile instant messaging (IM) solutions that enable mobile operators and IM providers to bring instant messaging services to operators’ subscribers. Furthermore, OZ works closely with leading handset manufacturers to provide users with a rich and fully integrated IM experience on mobile devices. Visionary companies such as Cingular, AOL®, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens, SonyEricsson, T-Mobile USA and Yahoo!®, have partnered with OZ to empower people with a seamless, always-on mobile IM experience. OZ is a privately held company headquartered in Montreal, Canada. The Company also has regional offices in the US and Europe. For more information, visit the OZ website at www.oz.com.

For more information please contact:

Beverly Wilks
Director, Corporate Marketing & Communications
Tel: 1.514.390.2906
Mobile: 1.514.887.2252

OZ Communications and the OZ logo are trademarks of OZ Communications Inc. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.