Netcom and Comverse Bring Visual Voicemail to iPhone in Norway

Comverse today announced that Netcom, a leading Norwegian mobile operator and part of the TeliaSonera (NASDAQ OMX Stockholm: TLSN) group, is the first operator in the country to offer visual voicemail on the iPhone.

Powered by Comverse Visual Voicemail, Netcom’s users now are able to enjoy a dramatically enhanced voicemail experience, compared to conventional voicemail. Instead of dialing in for voice messages, mobile users can glance at an inbox with information about each voice message, such as the sender, the time the message was left and its length. Instead of navigating a voice menu, users can listen to any message in any order and click to take further action, such as returning a call.

Netcom’s first visual voicemail breakthrough was the introduction several years ago of Comverse Voicemail to MMS, which pushed multimedia messages immediately to handsets and brought new speed and value to voicemail in Norway.

"The visual voicemail inbox on the iPhone now takes the experience to a whole new level,” said Netcom Messaging Services Manager Thorbjørn Rusnes. "This world-class service puts our offering in a league of its own, giving us a significant competitive advantage, and this is borne out by the extremely positive feedback we are getting from our customers.”

Visual voicemail makes voicemail more compelling and attractive. Because these messages are timely and relevant, the recipient tends to respond quickly. In addition, callers leave more messages, knowing that messages tend to be heard immediately. The improved experience for all parties increases user satisfaction and boosts usage, thus generating more revenues for the operator.

"Operators seek to leverage voice traffic to the maximum, as voice accounts for the lion’s share of their revenues,” said Urban Gillstrom, Group President of Global Sales at Comverse, the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling value-added messaging and content services, converged billing and active customer management, and IP communications.

"Visual voicemail is producing outstanding results for operators around the globe,” Gillstrom said. "Norway joins a rapidly growing list of countries discovering that when voicemail delivers a cutting-edge user experience, more people will leave a message at the tone — and this is good news for the industry.”

With more than two thirds of commercial launches worldwide, Comverse is the visual voicemail market leader. Comverse Visual Voicemail is part of the Comverse HUB Value-Added Services, spanning voice, messaging, mobile Internet and mobile advertising. Comverse HUB is a synergistic framework that enables service providers to maximize their business performance and augment their position in the market.

View demonstrations of the Comverse HUB and other Comverse products and innovations at ITU Telecom World in Geneva, Oct. 5-9. The Comverse Hospitality Suite is located in the Telecom Village, Hall 2 (#2613). In addition, demonstrations and webinars about Comverse’s products and services are available at www.comverse-expo.com.

About Netcom Norway

NetCom is the second largest mobile phone operator in Norway. The company has about 1.2 million subscribers, and the company headquarters are located in Nydalen in Oslo. It is owned by the Swedish and Finnish company TeliaSonera.

About Comverse

Comverse is the world’s leading provider of software and systems enabling value-added services for voice, messaging, mobile Internet and mobile advertising; converged billing and active customer management; and IP communications. Comverse’s extensive customer base spans more than 130 countries and covers over 500 communication service providers serving more than two billion subscribers. The company’s innovative product portfolio enables communication service providers to unleash the value of the network for their customers by making their networks smarter. Comverse’s solutions support flexible deployment models, including in-network, hosted and managed services, and can run on circuit-switched, IP, IMS or converged network environments. Comverse is a subsidiary of Comverse Technology, Inc. (CMVT.PK). For more information, visit www.comverse.com.

All product and company names mentioned herein may be registered trademarks or trademarks of Comverse or the respective referenced company(s).

This release contains "forward-looking statements” under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurances that any forward-looking statements will be achieved. Important factors that could affect the statements contained herein include: changes in the demand for the company’s products; changes in capital spending among the company’s current and prospective customers; the risks associated with the sale of large, complex, high capacity systems and with new product introductions as well as the uncertainty of customer acceptance of these new or enhanced products from either the company or its competition; and risks associated with rapidly changing technology and the ability of the company to introduce new products on a timely and cost-effective basis. The company undertakes no commitment to update or revise forward-looking statements except as required by law.

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