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15th June 2004 - Ericsson has signed managed services
contracts with two U.S. wireless operators - Midwest
Wireless and Rural Cellular Corporation - to integrate,
host and manage multimedia messaging services (MMS)
throughout their respective networks. Ericsson's hosting
offering is helping the carriers deliver MMS to their
customers more quickly and cost efficiently than if
they were to own and operate the service themselves.
In addition to supplying the platform and integrating
the application with the carriers' networks, Ericsson
will operate and manage the MMS service offerings around
the clock. Furthermore, through Ericsson's Mobility
World initiative, each carrier will benefit from relationships
with thousands of application and content developers
whose services are compatible with Ericsson networks
around the world.
"It's especially important in today's telecommunications
market for vendors and service providers to work together
as strategic partners," Ericsson Inc. President and
Chief Executive Officer Angel Ruiz said. "For both Midwest
Wireless and Rural Cellular Corporation, this approach
was the most practical way to bring MMS to market quickly
while controlling capital and operational costs."
"Our overall goal was to deliver a consistently reliable
MMS solution to our customers as quickly and cost-effectively
possible," said Dennis Miller, President and Chief Executive
Officer, Midwest Wireless. "Of all the alternatives
we considered for delivering MMS to our customers, we
felt the Ericsson solution would be the most practical
both in terms of reliability and service flexibility."
"Ericsson's MMS solution fits well into our next generation
strategy for both our GSM/GPRS and our CDMA2000 networks
going forward," said Ann Newhall, Executive Vice President
and Chief Operating Officer, Rural Cellular Corporation.
"While the Ericsson solution is practical, more importantly
it allows us to execute on a quality feature offering
our customers are asking for."
About Midwest Wireless
Based in Mankato, Minnesota, Midwest Wireless is a leading
regional wireless services provider with more than 370,000
customers in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. With a company-wide
focus on customer satisfaction, Midwest Wireless has
one of the highest customer loyalty rates in the industry.
Midwest Wireless offers wireless phone services, as
well as mobile Internet access on phones and wireless
devices at speeds up to 70K. In select areas, the company
also offers High-Speed Wireless Internet, a fixed wireless
broadband service that delivers high-speed Internet
access to homes and businesses at speeds ranging from
256K to 1.5M. More information on Midwest Wireless is
available at www.midwestwireless.com
About Rural Cellular Corporation
A leading rural service provider headquartered in Alexandria,
Minnesota, Rural Cellular Corporation [NASDAQ: RCCC]
was established in 1990 and conducted its initial public
offering in February 1996. RCC serves more than 750,000
wireless customers in 44 markets in the Midwest, Northeast,
South and Northwest Regions. From its array of services
including cellular, paging, long distance and PCS, RCC
tailors its offering to address the needs of each of
its rural markets in 14 states. Additional information
about RCC is available at www.rccwireless.com
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