IBM and Telenor Develop Mobile Devices and Networks That Learn and Adapt

PASTA Adds the Special Sauce to Presence Technology

ARMONK, NY & OSLO, NORWAY - 19 Sep 2006: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Telenor have developed new mobile communications technology for global business users that will allow mobile devices and networks to automatically learn about their users’ whereabouts and preferences as they commute, work and travel.

Code-named PASTA for “Presence Advanced Services for Telco Applications” and developed by the two companies as part of a joint research initiative, the technology provides infrastructure for deploying next-generation mobile presence services. “Presence” technology -- used in applications such as instant messaging -- makes it possible to locate and identify a computing or communications device wherever it might be, as soon as the user connects to the network. Privacy issues are addressed by allowing users to control when they are available.

Eases Network Congestion for Telenor

The pilot test for the PASTA project will use an application that was designed to streamline the routing of wireless phone traffic on the Telenor network.

“The PASTA technology can have a direct benefit to our mobile phone business,” said Hans-Christian Haugli, SVP and head of Telenor R&D. “Now we want to explore other applications with our enterprise customers and applications developers, who we think will find incredible new uses for this technology.”

“The PASTA infrastructure has the ability to ’learn’ about users’ preferences. As the network becomes ’smart’ about its users’ preferences, we believe we can reduce outgoing network load by up to 70 percent,” said Vova Soroka, IBM’s lead researcher on the project. “That is a huge benefit to a network operator, but PASTA can also be used to create new end-user applications -- to enable new services in medicine, tourism, financial services, logistics and home care industries among others. Any business with a large mobile workforce will find potential uses.”

Standards-based for Open Access

Presence technology is an integral part of third generation (3G) wireless networks, and is being employed across a wide variety of devices, including mobile phones, notebook computers, PDAs and pagers. IBM and Telenor plan to extend the IP-based PASTA infrastructure to make it available to enterprise customers and third-party applications developers.

The standards-based PASTA infrastructure works with a variety of wireless networks -- GSM, GPS, RFID and Wi-fi, for example.

PASTA’s state-of-the-art machine-learning and pattern-recognition capabilities are the key features which separate it from other presence tools currently in use by mobile telecom providers. It was developed by IBM Research scientists in Haifa, Israel and Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

PASTA is built on the recently released IBM WebSphere Presence Server (WPrS), part of the company’s next-generation services platform for telecommunications. It uses data gathered by WPrS and interprets it to provide real-time services for mobile users. WPrS uses a services-oriented architecture approach that provides reusable functionality to allow service providers and enterprise customers to leverage presence technology across a range of services and applications.

About the IBM Research Division
IBM Research is the world’s largest information technology research organization, with about 3,000 scientists and engineers in eight labs in six countries. IBM has produced more research breakthroughs than any other company in the IT industry. For more information on IBM Research, visit http://www.research.ibm.com.

About Telenor
Telenor is a leading telecommunications provider with significant commitments in emerging markets in Europe and Asia and a key position in the Nordic region. Telenor is one of the world’s largest mobile operators with more than 74.5 million subscriptions. Telenor is the leading telecommunications company in Norway and the largest provider of TV services to the Nordic market. Total workforce is 23,400 man-years of which 12,400 are outside Norway. Telenor R&D gives important contributions to innovation and new services. http://www.telenor.com/

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Michael Corrado

IBM Research

IBM

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