CoreMedia's solution, which has been developed in accordance with the Open Mobile Alliance's (OMA) DRM specifications and is based on JAVA, ODRL and XML, will allow Vodafone to securely distribute multiple content formats such as music tracks and videos. The solution offers differing levels of protection, from lightweight protection based on Forward-Lock and Combined Delivery, through to the encrypted form of Separate Delivery using the OMA standard.

"Vodafone live! is a world-class consumer offering, providing the best mobile content and entertainment services available today" said Guy Laurence, Global Marketing Director ? Consumer, at Vodafone. "The implementation of CoreMedia's digital rights management solution clearly demonstrates Vodafone's commitment to providing a secure mechanism for Content Providers to deliver rich media content to Vodafone live! customers, particularly with the launch of 3G multimedia services."

"Analysts expect data traffic and premium content revenues to grow to around USD40 billion in 2007 once a viable DRM infrastructure has been put in place. By implementing CoreMedia's DRM solution, Vodafone will be able to further enhance its leading position in the mobile industry," said Sören Stamer, Co-Founder and CEO of CoreMedia AG. "We are excited to work with Vodafone to cost-effectively establish a secure, reliable and scalable OMA standard-based DRM solution."

Dario Betti, Analyst at Ovum, said: "Mobile operators have voiced their preference for open standards in DRM. Vodafone's move is so far the most important step towards the OMA DRM solution by the mobile industry. CoreMedia was one of the pioneers in mobile DRM with a long history and experience in this market, but now they can also claim to be a leading player thanks to the scale and reach of this agreement."

"With this global deployment and over 120 handsets with the OMA DRM available, we will see the mobile content business flourishing in 2005 based on consumer friendliness and interoperability," commented Dr. Willms Buhse, OMA Vice Chair and Director Products and Marketing at CoreMedia.

Vodafone has worked closely with handset manufacturers to ensure a consistent implementation of OMA DRM standards, to ensure a best of breed, end-to-end service for Vodafone live! customers.

Notes for Editors:

(c) Vodafone Group 2004. Vodafone is a trade mark of the Vodafone Group. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trade marks of their respective owners.

For further information:

Vodafone Group

Investor Relations
Melissa Stimpson
Darren Jones
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 673310