China Unicom Orders Java OTA Service

Schlumberger Smart Cards & Terminals is to supply Zhejiang Unicom, a subsidiary of China Unicom, with Simgo, its Java-based Over-The-Air (OTA) service management solution. Zhejiang Unicom will be the first China Unicom subsidiary to commercialize its OTA services on advanced 64K SIM cards, setting the stage for future development of OTA Short Messaging System (SMS) services.

Schlumberger has brought together a complete solution that sets it apart from other competitors. Simgo will enable Zhejiang Unicom to launch and manage its first commercial OTA SMS data service. Thanks to the platform scalability, Zhejiang Unicom will soon be able to tailor its OTA data services quickly to an even larger subscriber base.

"As a major player in the market, we have millions of subscribers, each with unique service access needs,'' reported a spokesperson of Zhejiang Unicom. ''Simgo allows us to provide this large base of users with personalized remote access and data transfer capabilities. We are confident that Simgo will be able to deliver faster and better services to a growing subscriber base. It also marks a significant milestone in our SMS-based data services deployment within China Unicom as a group."

For mobile subscribers, Simgo presents a unique experience where users can update services via one or a few SMS messages -- five to ten times less than a conventional menu and application download. Simgo's ease of use and personalized services will without a doubt strengthen China Unicom's user loyalty and increase over-the-air data consumption.

"Compared to other solutions, Simgo's interoperability and scalability prove to be unique," said Tan Teck Lee, vice president of Schlumberger Smart Cards & Terminals Asia. "The Simgo platform is fully interoperable with other Java Card 2.1 compliant SIM cards. This means that Zhejiang Unicom will enjoy a great deal of flexibility in terms of the deployment of new services and system management. It is one more step in the progress of our successful cooperation with China Unicom, providing the most advanced solutions for customer loyalty and proactive revenue generation.''"

Posted to the site on 14th August 2003