WiderThan Selected As Partner Of Service Operations

WiderThan to provide operations & management services for Vietnam's first multimedia based wireless application protocol portal

WiderThan Co., Ltd., the global leader for delivering integrated digital entertainment solutions to communications services providers worldwide, and a subsidiary of RealNetworks Inc., announced today that it has been selected to operate and manage the Value Added Service (VAS) portfolio of S-Telecom Vietnam.

As part of the agreement, WiderThan will operate and manage S-Telecom's entire VAS offerings through web, text-based wireless application protocol (WAP), and EVDO platforms, which currently provide services such as ring tones, ringback tones, music-on-demand, video-on-demand, games, graphics, news, and many others. WiderThan will also support S-Telecom's new service planning and quality management systems and will assist in implementing advanced marketing and promotional programs.

"Vietnam's telecom market is thriving and has great potential. The mobile market has been especially dynamic and finding the right partner to manage and introduce new services is paramount," said Mr. Ho Hong Son, Managing Director at S-Telecom. "Key factors contributing to our decision to choose WiderThan included marketing expertise, advanced mobile data service operation and management experience and proven market success with several leading carriers."

"We see this opportunity as introduction of a new business model to the mobile marketplace where a carrier customer is buying our expertise based purely on advanced mobile services operation and management capabilities," said Jay Kim, Executive Vice President of Asia Pacific & Music Business Group, WiderThan. "We expect this business model will generate recurring revenue shares and play a key role for strategically growing the carrier's VAS business especially in emerging markets such as Asia."

According to GfK Asia, the No.4 market research organization worldwide, Vietnam's mobile phone market is estimated at $1.1 trillion in 2007. Operating in what the International Telecommunications Union rated as the second fastest growing mobile market in Asia, S-Telecom is Vietnam's leading and most advanced mobile phone network. This partnership significantly expands WiderThan's business domain and leadership in the global digital entertainment market -