Wholesale Applications Community Announces Commercial Launch at Mobile World Congress 2011

Mobile Application Developer Alliance Delivers WAC-Powered torefronts, WAC-Compliant Handsets and Applications

BARCELONA, Spain, February 14, 2011 - Celebrating its first anniversary at Mobile World Congress, the Wholesale
Applications Community (WAC) today announced the commercial launch of the
organisation. At a press conference today, WAC CEO Peters Suh will be joined
by a number of CEOs from the organisation's 68 member companies as he unveils
WAC-powered storefronts, demonstrates WAC-compliant handsets and web
applications, and provides a view of future developments in WAC.

"In the one year since WAC was initially formed at Mobile World Congress
2010, we have achieved a great deal, delivering against our committed
timelines and objectives every step of the way," said Peters Suh, CEO, WAC.
"Working together in a unified manner as an industry, we are having a
positive impact on the mobile application development ecosystem, providing
developers with a simplified method of creating applications and content, and
delivering them across operator, handset and operating system. With the
commercial launch of operator storefronts, handsets and applications, all
based on WAC, we can say that WAC is now officially open for business."

Leading mobile operators from around the world, including China Mobile,
MTS, Orange, Smart, Telefonica, Telenor, Verizon and Vodafone are announcing
at Mobile World Congress that they are connected to the WAC platform, while
the initiative boasts support from mobile phone manufacturers Huawei, LG,
Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE. Of the handset manufacturers, both Samsung
and LG will be further driving uptake of WAC by ensuring that all devices
produced by the two companies that are capable of supporting the WAC runtime
will do so.

WAC also today announced that Ericsson has developed and is launching a
white-label WAC-enabled storefront that can be easily customised to enable
operators to quickly and cost-effectively launch their own WAC storefronts.
Further, WAC announced that thousands of web applications are currently
available in the WAC-enabled storefronts, including many popular applications
and content that end users are downloading today.

The handsets and storefronts launched today are based on the initial WAC
1.0 specification, published in September 2010. WAC also announced the
availability of the WAC 2.0 specification, which supports HTML5 web
applications with rich multi-media capability, providing developers with an
increased set of mobile-specific functionality including file system,
calendar and orientation.

Critical to the success of the Wholesale Applications Community is the
interest shown by the major brands globally. The success of WAC will be
measured not only by take-up from operators, handset manufacturers and end
users, but also by the uptake from the developer community and the
applications they develop for today's market-leading brands. WAC 3.0, which
will be available in September 2011, will allow these brands to deliver even
more compelling applications, as developers are able to unlock backend
network assets including in-app billing and user authentication.

To demonstrate the benefits of this, WAC today will showcase a WAC 3.0
application developed in conjunction with a leading US-based television
network. The application will feature compelling video and music content
including ringtones, social networking, messaging and ticketing capabilities.
Critically, the application is specifically designed to take advantage of
select network APIs, such as user authentication and in-application billing,
providing users with the ability to sign in easily and allowing them to make
purchases simply and effectively while within the application.

In a statement of future direction, WAC announced that it will enable
applications from alternative applications development environments to make
similar use of these network assets. This approach is consistent with WAC's
goal to reduce fragmentation in the application market and will provide value
to applications ecosystems across the mobile industry.

"The demonstration of an application from a major consumer brand,
combined with WAC-compliant handsets and WAC-powered storefronts, provides
valid proof points to the work undertaken by WAC since its inception,"
continued Suh. "WAC provides the mobile industry, and more specifically, the
mobile application development community, with an effective way to simply and
efficiently drive the development and deployment of ground-breaking
applications."

WAC Press Conference at Mobile World Congress

WAC will be holding its press conference on Monday 14th February at 14:00
in Hall 5, Room 3. The press conference is open to press and analysts
attending Mobile World Congress.

About the Wholesale Applications Community

Launched in February 2010, the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) is
an open global alliance formed from leading organisations within the telecoms
sector. Uniting a fragmented applications marketplace, WAC will create an
open industry platform that benefits the entire ecosystem, including
applications developers, handset manufacturers, OS owners, network operators
and end users.

The Wholesale Applications Community will:

    - Accelerate and expand the market for applications - Simplify
      application development by giving developers the opportunity to write
      applications that can be deployed across multiple platforms and
      multiple operators, and address a potential global market of more than
      3 billion users.

    - Create more compelling applications - Enable developers to
      utilise both device and network capabilities to create the next
      generation of applications.

    - Provide greater choice for users - Enable portability of
      applications across devices, operating systems and network operators.

Current WAC members are as follows:

Accenture, Adobe, Aepona, Alcatel-Lucent, Aplix, Amdocs, America Movil,
ASPire, AT&T, Bell Mobility, Borqs, Bougyues Telecom,Camber Tech Inc (BVI)
Limited, Capgemini, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson,
Eyeline, France Telecom, Fujitsu, GClue, Gemalto, HP, Huawei, Hutchison 3
Group, IBM, Infraware, Innoace, Intel, KDDI, KT Corporation, KT Innotz, LG
Electronics, LG Uplus, LiMo Foundation, Minigate, MTS, Myriad Group, Neustar,
NTT DOCOMO, Oberthur Technologies, Obigo, Opera Software, Orascom Telecom,
Oracle Corporation, Panasonic, Qualcomm Incorporated, Research in Motion,
Rogers Communications, Samsung, SanDisk, SAP, SFR, Sharp, SK Telecom, Smart
Communications, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefonica,
Telekom Austria Group, Telenor, Verizon, Vimpelcom, Vodafone, ZTE and the
GSMA.

For a list of members and more information, please go to www.wacapps.net

WAC Member Quotes

AT&T

"We're excited about where this group is headed," said Randall
Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer, AT&T. "As a founding
member, we're encouraged by the momentum WAC has achieved in its first year,
and the opportunities ahead are more and more compelling. Roadmap efforts,
including driving a common network API strategy, will connect carriers'
capabilities with developers' innovations in new ways that will help benefit
customers, drive growth and take the apps economy to new heights."

Ericsson

"Ericsson's cloud based eStore is a perfect fit with the strategic
intention of WAC to provide a one stop shop for developers to reach millions
of consumers. Fully integrated with the WAC warehouse, eStore allows
operators to faster launch application storefronts with all types of
applications and content," commented Jan Wareby, SVP head of Sales &
Marketing at Ericsson and also member of the WAC board.

Huawei

"WAC is a great opportunity and challenge for mobile operators and their
suppliers, Huawei is very optimistic about the future of WAC," said Dr. Che
Haiping, Huawei Software CTO, "As WAC's BOD observer, Huawei has adopted WAC
specifications in our end-to-end solutions, including WAC storefront,
WAC-Enabled White-Label-Store, WAC Common Service Gateway, settlement and WAC
compliant terminals. In partnership with Philippine SMART Communications, we
deployed one of the first WAC-Enabled storefronts and now it is today
commercially launched. We are also committed to fully support the development
of WAC!"

KT

"If the announcement of WAC was shocking news last year, everyone will be
shocked again this year at the speed and execution of WAC. This is a clear
demonstration of how much WAC and its members are committed for delivering
the promise of building a healthy eco-system for distribution of
applications," said Dr. Hyun-Myung Pyo, President of Mobile Business Group,
KT Corp and a Board member of WAC. With its showcasing of WAC devices and web
apps at MWC, KT is proud to be an integral part of global efforts for fast
realization of WAC for All."

LG

"In mobiles as elsewhere, content really is the king, which is why we've
worked so hard at developing technologies to improve it," said Dr. Jong-seok
Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "WAC
will be one of the leading platforms for global app stores, and LG will be
right there with it developing even better ecosystems for content."

Orange

"We are excited to enable the distribution of WAC widgets alongside all
other applications currently retailed in the Orange App Shop - it is a real
indication of how WAC is working effectively and delivering on its promises,"
said Jean Philippe Vanot Deputy CEO, Orange and Deputy Chairman, WAC. "By
taking this step to open our shop to WAC widgets, we are greatly extending
the distribution reach of developers, and enhancing the global catalogue of
content our App Shop Managers will be able to offer to our customers in each
market. And I wish to thank our partners Atos Worldline, Surfkitchen and LG
Electronics, who worked hard with us to show you today how WAC and the Orange
App Shop can build a compelling value proposition to both developers and
Orange customers."

Samsung

"We are pleased to be part of this strategic initiative by operator
customers around the global market. Samsung remains committed to providing
our customers with higher value and better experience through Samsung's
innovative smartphones," commented JK Shin, President, Mobile Division,
Samsung. "We will provide full support for both WAC 1.0 and 2.0 on most
smartphones to be launched this year, and work closely with other members of
WAC to enrich its ecosystem."

Smart

"As a pioneer board member of the WAC, we are proud that Smart is among
first operators in the world to deliver on the promise of WAC. In this Mobile
World Congress, we are unveiling the Smart Netphone which supports WAC
applications on both Android and Brew MP devices," commented Napoleon L.
Nazareno, President and CEO of Smart Communications, Inc. Specifically
designed for customers in emerging markets, the Netphone enables users to
access the internet in affordable, bite-sized amounts. Ease of use has been
enhanced in various innovative ways such as linking widgets to the phonebook.
We hope that the Netphone will thus contribute significantly to making the
internet much more accessible to more people in the Philippines and elsewhere
in the world."

Telefonica

"Telefonica is committed to WAC in order to drive both the
standardisation of technologies and to improve how operators and developers
conduct business together," commented, Julio Linares, COO of Telefonica.
"Today Telefonica is launching its connection to WAC 1.0, allowing us to
distribute thousands of compelling web applications to our customers.
Additionally, at the MWC we are demonstrating WAC 2.0, highlighting the
evolution of the WAC."

Telenor

"Telenor is committed to the development and distribution of attractive
content for mobile phones. In this regard, increased availability and common
standards are important success criterias. Our launch of the Telenor tStore
in Serbia marks the beginning of a further roll-out in our operations," said
Morten Karlsen Sorby, Executive Vice President in Telenor Group and Member of
the Board of Directors in WAC.

Vodafone

"WAC continues to make strong progress and we are pleased to support its
aims and objectives," said Michel Combes, Vodafone CEO, Europe.

Phil Rawcliffe, +07889-320159, press at wholesaleappcommunity.com