19/02-09   -   Press releases

At MWC 2009 UbiEst and Aepona announce partnership for location-based family services

Barcelona, GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 - At MWC 2009 UbiEst, global developer of location-based mobile services, has announced a partnership with Aepona, the leading supplier of telecom service layer products and solutions to Telcos globally, to bring to market a compelling family application, based on NAVTEQ® maps showing the benefits for Telco’s to embrace the “Network-as-a-Service" (NaaS) business model.
Ubiest and Aepona have signed a partner agreement under which UbiEst will provide its leading suite of location-based applications for Aepona to integrate with its award-winning Universal Service Platform and take to its mobile operator customers. UbiEst’s location-based services form a significant part of Aepona’s Family Bundle service offering, which will be launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 2009.
“We are very pleased to have UbiEst as a partner for location based applications", said Al Snyder, CEO of Aepona. “They have proven sector knowledge and the ambition to support Aepona in our mission to help telecom operators be more competitive in the new Web 2.0/Telco 2.0 market. With this combined application and platform solution, Aepona is providing a clear route to market for an application provider, as well as helping to jump-start the commercialisation of a NaaS business model for our operator customers."
UbiEst has developed a suite of Mobile Location Based Services for fleet and workforce management, personal security, off board navigation and social networking. UbiEst also provides MapBroker Infomobility Platform, an application framework of functional components, modular services and ready-to-use applications enabling an integrated approach to the development, implementation and delivery of Location-Based Information across a wide range of mobility services. UbiEst’s strategic alliance with NAVTEQ ensures their products have the best cartographic support worldwide.
UbiSafe, the location based mobile service developed by UbiEst for family peace of mind, allows users to precisely locate families carrying a GPS-equipped smartphone or a small portable GPS tracker, called UbiSafe box, and track their movements from an Internet connection or a mobile phone. The GPS device is a small locator weighing 70 grams, responding to locations requests with the exact GPS position and the speed of the person carrying it, as well as triggering SMS alarms in case of leaving “safe zones", exceeding a stated speed limit or sudden braking. UbiSafe was the Grand Prize Winner at EMEA NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge®.2008.
“The UbiSafe application won a NAVTEQ LBS Challenge 2008 award, supported by Nokia and Blackberry for best consumer application. By using the Aepona Telecom Web Services APIs we could very quickly improve and add new features into our application. Things like network based location, call control and audio call have really improved the application for the end-user. We also are pleased that Aepona selected us for their Family Bundle solution and the tools and support they provided have been excellent for us. We think that that this service demonstrates how all parties in the value chain can gain, from the end-user to the Telco." said Nicola De Mattia, CEO of UbiEst.
Aepona’s Universal Service Platform is a carrier-grade software solution that allows operators to open up their networks to third party application developers, web-based service providers and Enterprises, in a controlled, standards-based and billable manner. The platform has been chosen by Tier 1 operators such as Sprint, TELUS and Bell Canada to enable them to drive service innovation through collaboration with partners, enable faster time to market for new services, and to dramatically reduce the cost of onboarding third party application developers and service providers.

About Ubiest
Founded in 2000 and based in Treviso (Italy), UbiEst SpA provides location based solution on Internet and Mobile connections for Business and Consumer markets. UbiEst holds a strong leadership in Italian B2B market of Location Based Services and is among NAVTEQ main EMEA partners.
The company has developed its own mapping technology in order to provide state of the art and highly performing Internet and mobile solutions, available for in-house or SaaS (Software as a Service) and provides provides the location technology, the expertise and the infrastructure to develop new value added location based services for business and consumer markets.
Currently the company provides a suite of mobile location based products for fleet management, personal security, off board navigation and workforce management. Significant customers: Fiat, Trenitalia, Vodafone Italy, Ferrari, Enel, Telecom Italia, etc.

About Aepona
Headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland with offices in North America, the UK and Europe, Aepona’s products have been deployed by Tier 1 operators such as France Telecom/Orange, Sprint, Vimpelcom, Bharti Airtel, TELUS, BT and KPN, providing services to several hundred million subscribers worldwide.
Aepona’s solution allows Telcos to embrace the Network as a Service (NaaS) business model by securely publishing their network capabilities - communications, information and intelligence - to the outside world as standards-based Web Services, enables thousands of 3rd parties to telecom-enable both Enterprise business processes and web-based consumer services.
Aepona is also the technology provider for the GSM Association´s "OneAPI" initiative.


For further information contact:

For Ubiest:
Alberto Falcione
Vice President Sales, UbiEst
E: alberto.falcione@ubiest.com
T: +39 348 450 14 74
www.ubiest.com


For Aepona:
Michael Crossey
Vice President Marketing, Aepona
E: michael.crossey@aepona.com
T:+44 7734 318210
www.aepona.com