For the first time consumers can experience and participate in the Volvo Ocean Race via their mobile phones, giving operators the opportunity to deliver exciting and real-time content services from the race. Together with Volvo Ocean Race, Ericsson will launch a new hosted-content service, the Volvo Ocean mobile portal. Ericsson is enabling global media companies and global media events to deliver on the desire to access news and entertainment at consumer's own convenience and in partnership with their operators, using the mobile media channel.
In November 2005, at Galicia, Spain, seven VO70 boats will line up on the starting line. They will compete during the following eight months, covering 31,000 nautical miles of the globe's most treacherous seas and visiting ten ports around the world. During the race, immediate reports from each of the crews will be delivered daily as MMS and SMS alerts, radio and video clips, streaming and mobile blogs, to subscribers' mobile phones.
Johan Bergendahl, Vice President, Marketing, Ericsson, says: "It is about delivering the adventure and excitement of the Volvo Ocean Race experience - right to your hand, whenever and wherever you are. It is also about being able to understand how to maximise the capabilities of the mobile channel in the most attractive way to the end user,while using a delivery capability that is commercially attractive and tremendously efficient for operators and media companies to leverage.
"Ericsson can deliver on the opportunity today using its content and applications offering, which is commercially available throughout the world via Ericsson global hosting centres."
Glenn Bourke, CEO, Volvo Ocean Race, says: "For the first time in the history of the Volvo Ocean Race, people can be part of the race 24 hours a day via their mobile phones, getting the true feeling of the race. The portal gives consumers immediate access to experience the race on their own terms."
The portal is integrated and hosted by Ericsson under a managed services agreement and operators can quickly introduce the Volvo Ocean race service under their own brands. The portal can be part of operators' existing portals or used as a stand-alone service.
The race content and the day-to-day maintenance are managed from Ericsson's operation centre in Dallas, US. Also included are systems integration of the portal into the different operator environments and distribution and digital rights management.
Ericsson's hosting solutions for enablers, content and applications are a part of its industry leading managed services offering, where operators are offered content packages for mobile portals within five different categories - music, multiplayer gaming, video and multimedia subscriptions and downloads. Operators can offer consumers a series of portals pre-packaged with content from different Ericsson partners.
The Volvo Ocean Race has taken place every four years since its inception in 1973. For more info please visit: www.volvooceanrace.org
To get continuous updates on Ericsson's participation in the Volvo Ocean Race please visit: www.ericssonracingteam.com
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.
Read more at: www.ericsson.com
For further information, please contact:
Ericsson Media Relations
Phone: +46 8 719 6992
E-mail: press.relations@ericsson.com
About Ericsson Managed Services
Ericsson has the telecom industry's most comprehensive managed services offerings, covering management of day-to-day operations of a customer's network and can also include managed capacity for efficient network build out wherever and whenever needed, as well as hosting of applications and content management. As the undisputed industry leader in managed services, Ericsson has officially announced well over 50 managed services contracts with operators worldwide since 2002. Excluding hosting, Ericsson is managing networks that, together, serve more than 43 million subscribers worldwide.
