Microsoft and SingTel Launch Initiative to Develop New Mobile Services

June 3

Microsoft Corp. announced the Connected Services Accelerator Program, a series of projects designed to incubate, and ultimately commercialize, new types of consumer, business and mobile services through collaboration with independent software vendors
(ISVs), developers and operators. Microsoft will collaborate with SingTel on the program's first project, the Mobile Connected Services Accelerator.

All Accelerator projects will utilize Microsoft Connected Services Sandbox as the platform for the creation, development and testing of these innovative new services.

Mobile Connected Services Accelerator

The objective of the Mobile Connected Services Accelerator is to
develop a new, cutting-edge mobile application for a vertical industry,
which can be supported on Windows Mobile-based devices as well as Windows Vista-enabled mobile broadband PCs. Examples of such applications include the collection of patient data in healthcare, telemetry and fleet-management solutions, real-time financial services, equipment and property management, and utilities management. SingTel will make its state-of-the-art infrastructure and resources available to participants for development and testing purposes.

To qualify, developers and ISVs must have annual revenues not exceeding $20 million (U.S.) and must not be owned by a publicly traded company or subsidiary, or mobile operator. Proposals will be evaluated according to a set of criteria that includes market potential, scalability, ease of use, ease of deployment, customer demand and originality.

"SingTel is excited to collaborate with Microsoft to accelerate the
development of innovative mobile services that will transform the way we live, work and play," said Bill Chang, executive vice president of business at SingTel. "The Mobile Connected Services Accelerator is a global initiative that will complement the SingTel Partner Programme in driving innovation and helping to turn exciting ideas into reality. Participants may not only benefit from reduced development costs but also achieve faster time to market for their innovations."

"Our mission for the industry is to drive the transition to Telco 2.0,
a new era of communications where service providers are delivering hundreds if not thousands of new services," said Martha Bejar, corporate vice president for the Communications Sector at Microsoft. "Building on our investments in the Sandbox development environment, the Connected Services Accelerator Program aims to build a truly global marketplace for service creation that, working with operators, will lead to the commercialization of a new wave of innovative services. We are working with SingTel on the first project, which has a mobile focus to tap into the huge potential we see for applications delivered to mobile devices including mobile-broadband
PCs."

The Mobile Connected Services Accelerator project will run from July 1 to Sept. 30, during which time Microsoft and SingTel will provide technical and commercial guidance to support the project team. The project will be entered into the GSMA's Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition in the Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market category, with the winner to be announced at the Mobile Asia Congress in Macau Nov. 18-20.

"The speed of Internet protocol innovation demands that mobile operators must continue to innovate to deliver compelling new services and remain competitive," said Bill Gajda, chief commercial officer of the GSMA. "Microsoft's initiatives are consistent with the objectives of the GSMA, formed specifically for the Mobile Innovation Market, which focuses on turning ideas into reality. We welcome the association of the Connected Services Accelerator Program to the GSMA's Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition and hope to extend these efforts to a scalable program that will produce innovative services and applications for the broad mobile operator community."