Press Releases

Lisbon, 5 November 2002 – Vodafone Telecel is introducing to the market a new concept in mobile communications, combining for the first time a comprehensive set of services and content, colour, audio, messages and images. Called Vodafone live!, the concept offers a wide range of services in terms of capturing, sending and receiving photographs, colour games in two and three dimensions, e-mail, polyphonic tones and a wide variety of content, much of it location based.

Available from 8 November, Vodafone live! will revolutionise the way mobile phones are used, bringing together as it does information and entertainment as part of a combined package comprising handset and high-quality content and services, called up from coloured menus and using icons to facilitate easy, intuitive use. Even prior to the launch of UMTS, Vodafone live! is already offering third-generation mobile services, supported by GSM technology via GPRS.

Underlying Vodafone’s investment in the concept is the conviction that what matters to customers is not the technology that supports services but, above all, the quality, usefulness and entertainment value of such services – and, equally, their capacity to generate and convey emotions, something that is now possible with the introduction of this new concept.

Vodafone has invested heavily in the development of Vodafone live!, including consulting customers in order to gain a better understanding of their real needs and expectations. The result is this new concept giving customers access to a fascinating world of colour, audio, images and content from easy-to-use handsets with highly intuitive, user-friendly menus.

Vodafone live! will be available on three handsets: the Sharp GX 10, the Nokia 7650 and the Panasonic GD 87. During the coming months, the number of models will be increased, widening customer choice. There is no subscription for accessing the service and its cost depends solely on usage.

MMS/Multimedia Album
Vodafone live! allows users to instantaneously capture, send, save and receive messages containing images, and to combine audio and text with them, using a simple interface. Linked to these features is the Multimedia Album – a personal archive allowing users to compose multimedia messages from saved images and audio files, and to share them with others.

E-mail
Vodafone live! users can receive and send e-mails extremely simply. They are automatically provided with an e-mail address in the ‘telephonenumber@vodafone.pt’ format, ready to use and with the opportunity to upgrade to the Unified Messaging Service (voice, fax and e-mail in a single mailbox). It will also be possible to access external e-mail accounts.

Polyphonic ringtones
Vodafone is offering its customers a catalogue containing more than one thousand ringtones divided into several categories, such as Top Hits, New Releases, 80s Sounds, 90s Sounds, Cinema-TV, Classical, Dance, Hip Hop, Pop-Rock, etc., with a quality of up to 16 simultaneous notes instead of the 1 or 2 currently on the market. Customers will be able to access the catalogue from the Vodafone live! menu and download the ringtone they want, or even record their own ringtones.

Games
The latest generation games are available, in two and three dimensions and colour, and with sound and vibration. Customers will be able to download the latest action games or choose traditional ones such as PacMan, Galaxian, Space Invaders, etc. A wide range of games is available, all written in Java.

Mobile portal
An easy-to-navigate colour portal, using icons and providing access to specific content areas such as news, useful information, restaurants, pharmacies, weather, sport, live goals, traffic reports, horoscopes, cultural events, TV, cinema, etc.. The service includes a handset location device known as ‘Near Me’, to direct the user to the nearest pharmacy, restaurant, etc.

Rates
It will be possible to send messages containing images, colour, long text and audio to mobile phones or e-mail addresses for €0.39. Polyphonic tones will cost €1.50 and games will be priced at €2.50 or €3.00. Traffic will be free until 31 December 2002, after which a charge of €0.015 per KB will be made. These figures include VAT.

Vodafone’s partners in the project include local partners, such as TVI/Endemol, Record, Porto Editora, Guia do Automóvel and Jornal Ocasião, and international partners, such as MTV, Fnac, Jipii and Kiwee, among a host of others. The existing Vodafone content, supplied by Bola, Público, Canal de Negócios and others will continue to be available.

The Vodafone live! services and content form the basis for the next tier of mobile communications. All the services accessible by GSM technology via GPRS will be transposed to the Third Generation, at higher speeds and in greater variety.