London, UK, February 12-13, 2002 – Ericsson passed an important Wireless Village milestone by successfully demonstrating interoperability of its forthcoming Instant Messaging and Presence Server (IMPS) together with handsets from SonyEricsson, Motorola and Nokia. The demonstration offers a preview into the future of mobile Instant Messaging solutions and solves the problem of universal interoperability between different instant messaging and presence services.

Ericsson’s Instant Messaging and Presence Server (IMPS) is built upon the Wireless Village version 1.0 specifications and will provide network operators with an advanced personal communication tool for users that can deploy to 2G, 2.5G and 3G networks worldwide. The new instant messaging solution, which also works with legacy handsets, is to be announced by Ericsson in the upcoming months.

"Ericsson will continue to be a leader in supporting the open standards of the Wireless Village initiative and be at the forefront in developing the next generation of messaging applications,” says Jan Lindgren, Vice President Ericsson Internet Applications.

Interoperability will be possible via mobile handsets, mobile computing devices, and desktop applications through various transport bearers including SMS, WAP over GPRS, and multimedia messaging (MMS).

“Applications based upon Wireless Village are important for SonyEricsson, which will enable new services to be delivered to our customers. Wireless Village integrates with MMS, a strategic messaging application for both Ericsson and SonyEricsson customers”, says Jan Svensson, Vice President, SonyEricsson Mobile.

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world.