Unwired Planet Inc. announced it reached an agreement with Siemens Information and Communication Networks Group of Munich, Germany, to integrate its Wireless Access Protocol compatible software into Siemens AG’s Global System for Mobile communications infrastructure.
Specifically, Unwired Planet has licensed its UP.Link Server Suite to Siemens for its D900/D1800 GSM systems. Also, the company’s UP.Browser microbrowser will be integrated into Siemens’ mobile handsets, the companies announced, to provide a complete WAP-compatible solution.
This is not the first agreement between the two. In February, the companies agreed to make WAP-compatible mobile phones, which are now in the final engineering process and scheduled for commercial availability sometime next year.
“Siemens and Unwired Planet have been cooperating on WAP handsets for some time, and we are pleased to expand our relationship to include the Siemens Information and Communication Networks Group,” said Alain Rossmann, chairman and chief executive officer of Unwired Planet. “Siemens is one of the world’s leading infrastructure suppliers, and we believe that our close cooperation will lead to innovative and unique products which bring the combined power of Siemens Information and Communication Networks Group and WAP to carriers around the world.”
For its part, Unwired Planet is extremely pleased with the deal. The company has similar distribution agreements with other infrastructure providers, such as Alcatel, but Siemens is by far the largest.
“This is the next level. They are an incredibly large supplier of infrastructure of GSM equipment,” said Ben Linder, vice president of marketing at Unwired Planet. “The leadership of Siemens in the GSM market is very important … The fact that they chose UP software for the WAP component of their system is a great endorsement of our system.”
The agreement marks a distinct commitment by Siemens to address mobile data offerings. The Information and Communications Networks Group was founded in October as part of the restructuring of Siemens’ Information and Communications Technology segments, designed primarily to converge wireless and wireline services.
Unwired Planet’s UP.Link server adds a WAP-compatible architecture to Siemens’ network offerings. The server provides a path to such Internet content as information services, e-mail and specific network information that includes account information and company telephone directories.
The UP.Browser allows handsets to read this information. With Unwired Planet’s WAP products in both the infrastructure and the handset, Siemens will be able to guarantee fast access to the Internet to request the required information and display it on a handset’s screen.
The agreement gives Unwired Planet access to Siemens’ international sales strengths in areas where it has dominant markets share, such as Germany.
Unwired Planet, and with it WAP, has made significant strides in international markets of late. The company recently announced its products will be tested in networks owned by Telecom Italia in Italy and SFR-Cegetel in France.
While the Siemens agreement significantly expands Unwired Planet’s reach abroad, WAP adoption domestically has been less notable.
According to Linder, this is because the European GSM market is ahead of the curve in data applications over voice networks than its counterparts in the States. He identified the three main global markets for WAP as the United States, the GSM market (consisting of Europe and Asia) and Japan.
“The maturity of this business in Europe and Japan is slightly ahead of the U.S.,” he said, estimating between six months to a year ahead. “It is very much a fact out here (in Europe) that carriers are starting to ask for WAP software as a checklist item they give to their infrastructure suppliers.”
