NEW SERVICE: EUROTEL BUSINESS MESSAGING GATEWAY (BMG)


EuroTel Praha has launched a new service that is intended primarily for corporate customers with higher volumes of short text messages (SMS).

The new service, which goes under the trade name Business Messaging Gateway (BMG), ensures access to the SMS Center through modems interconnections, fixed data lines, or the public data network.

A short text message sent from a GSM mobile phone goes to the SMS Center and, with the use of BMG, it is transmitted through a fixed line, a modem, or the public data network to the PC terminal of the service user. Connections through fixed lines, modems, or the public data network are best suited for large or medium SMS volumes. The BMG service guarantees constant, twenty-four hour connections, high quality transmissions, and SMS reception, and the standard coding algorithms that are used, or possible added encoding systems, perfectly protect transmitted messages against misuse. Another advantage of the BMG service for its users is the lower costs as compared with the classic transmission mobile to mobile.

The Business Messaging Gateway service could be used mainly by financial and banking institutions (for mobile home banking), logistics firms (for directing and controlling distribution), and companies that work with measurement and control systems (for controlling and compiling data from remote facilities) or with various security applications (e.g., when verifying credit cards).

"In the Czech Republic, this new service is being successfully used by DHL International, for example, which uses BMG to ensure communication between the control center in Prague and the courier vehicles throughout the territory of the Czech Republic," says Iva Taťounová, the EuroTel Praha press spokesperson.

EuroTel Praha Ltd is a joint venture between SPT TELECOM Inc. 51%) and Atlantic West B.V. (49%). Atlantic West B.V. is jointly owned by Bell Atlantic (NYSE:BELL) and
MediaOne International, which is a part of the MediaOne Group (NYSE:UMG).





Prague, 20 July 1998

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For further information, please contact:
EuroTel Praha, Ltd.
Iva Taťounová
Tel.: 02/6701 1193, Fax: 02/6701 1195