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Cingular Wireless Launches Integrated Mobile Commerce Services, Powered by InfoSpace's Wireless Technology Platform
ATLANTA, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Cingular Wireless today announced the launch of mobile commerce services, powered by InfoSpace (Nasdaq: INSP), making integrated wireless shopping, rewards and transaction services seamless and secure for Cingular customers. Cingular has launched these services in its Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell wireless markets in California and Nevada, in its Cellular One property in Chicago and in its Southwestern Bell wireless property in Dallas. The company expects to have these services available in all markets by early next year.
(Photo: newscom.com )
The availability of these services marks Cingular's aggressive entry into the mobile commerce arena in time for the holiday shopping season. Three new mobile commerce services, all powered by InfoSpace, a leading global provider of cross-platform merchant and consumer infrastructure services on wireless, broadband, and narrowband platforms, are now available: Secure Wireless Wallet, Rewards and Shopping. Cingular Wireless customers can access these services through the "My Wireless Window" service, which costs less than $7.00 per month, at www.mywirelesswindow.com.
"With InfoSpace's integrated mobile commerce platform, we are now able to offer our customers an easy way to shop using their mobile phones," said Stephen Carter, president and CEO of Cingular Wireless. "Cingular customers can enjoy being among the first able to shop wirelessly for specific products and services, redeem valuable rewards from local and national merchants, and place orders for products instantly and securely, all on their mobile phones."
"As mobile communications becomes more prevalent and wireless penetration rates continue to skyrocket, we're thrilled to offer our global carrier partners a unique, integrated technology platform that that will empower their vast customer bases of both merchants and consumers to leverage the promise of mobile commerce," said Arun Sarin, InfoSpace CEO. "Merchants stand to benefit from the ability to drive additional targeted traffic to both their brick-and-mortar and Web storefronts, while mobile consumers will have unprecedented capabilities to find localized, as well as national outlets to meet their specific needs."
Secure Wallet, Money-Saving Rewards and Integrated Shopping for Wireless Purchasing
Cingular Wireless now offers the following mobile commerce services, all powered by InfoSpace, in select markets, and will provide these to customers nationwide in early 2001:
My Wireless Window Wallet
Cingular Wireless customers begin the mobile commerce experience by registering for a secure Wireless Wallet online at the 'My Wireless Window' Web page to store shipping and purchasing information, including methods of payment, allowing the consumer to take advantage of the Shopping and Rewards services. Next, after the shopper searches for products and selects the items to purchase through the Shopping engine, the Wireless Wallet delivers the shopper's shipping and purchasing information for the designated products to the merchant's Web site. The information is delivered through a secure online process, and the merchant processes the transaction.
My Wireless Window Rewards
Cingular Wireless customers can take advantage of tremendous savings by purchasing products and services from merchants participating in My Wireless Window Rewards, an innovative electronic/paperless promotions program using the existing credit card infrastructure system. To benefit from these special rewards, consumers search for deals from participating online or offline merchants by metropolitan area or product category, or register for customized alerts online, which will notify them when new merchant deals are available. Using this opt-in alert system, shoppers can take complete control of offers they would like to receive by entering a profile and specifying their favorite product or service categories, most frequented geographic locations, and the number, day and timing of notifications.
Consumers then purchase the goods or services at the participating merchant's online or offline location using a payment method registered in their Wireless Wallet. Next, the rewards are matched and automatically credited to the consumer credit card statement or other designated accounts, through secure transaction processing, without the use of special codes or paper coupons. It is a seamless process for both the consumer and the merchant, offering money-saving rewards and a convenient commerce experience for mobile shoppers.
My Wireless Window Shopping
My Wireless Window Shopping empowers consumers with the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions. Cingular Wireless customers can search for a product by UPC/ISBN, name, manufacturer, category or keyword and quickly receive information such as MSRP, product descriptions and online merchant pricing from an expansive database containing millions of products. Nine searchable categories of products are available at launch, including: Books, music, video, consumer electronics, computers and software, sporting goods, health and beauty, toys and games and office supplies. When the shopper selects a product, they can choose to purchase directly from the merchant using their wireless handset and the information entered in their Wireless Wallet, or buy it from a nearby brick-and-mortar store. Orders can be placed instantly via the wireless handset, and shoppers receive the products they purchased to the shipping destination designated through the Wireless Wallet registration process.
Participating merchants selling their products through the InfoSpace Shopping engine don't need a special Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Web site to be part of the mobile commerce experience.
About Cingular Wireless
Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between SBC (NYSE: SBC) and BellSouth (NYSE: BLS), provides wireless voice and data service to more than 19 million customers in 38 states, the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories. SBC and BellSouth share control of Cingular Wireless. Cingular operates in 42 of the top 50 markets in the United States. For more about Cingular Wireless visit our website at www.cingular.com/.
About InfoSpace, Inc.
InfoSpace is a leading global provider of cross-platform merchant and consumer infrastructure services on wireless, broadband, and narrowband platforms. The company provides commerce, information, and communication infrastructure services to wireless devices, merchants, and Web sites. InfoSpace's affiliates encompass a global network of wireless, PC, and non-PC devices including cellular phones, pagers, screen telephones, television set-top boxes, online kiosks and personal digital assistants. These include relationships with AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Intel, Virgin Mobile, Mitsui, Acer America, Hasbro, National Discount Brokers, and Bloomberg LLC. InfoSpace's affiliate network also consists of more 3,200 Web sites that include AOL, Microsoft, Disney's GO Network, NBC's Snap, Lycos, DoubleClick and ABC LocalNet, among others. InfoSpace is also positioned to tap the market for broadband wired (DSL and cable) and broadband wireless (2.5G and 3G) services, such as interactive gaming, television and other entertainment services. In addition, the company recently added full back end payment processing to InfoSpace's existing commerce services, allowing InfoSpace to offer everything a merchant needs to conduct the entire lifecycle of a transaction, one of the key drivers of mobile commerce adoption.
This release contains forward-looking statements relating to the development of the Company's products and services and future operating results, including statements regarding the Company's agreement with Cingular Wireless that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. The words "believe," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," variations of such words, and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Factors that could affect the Company's actual results include the progress and costs of the development of our products and services and the timing of market acceptance of those products and services. A more detailed description of certain factors that could affect actual results include, but are not limited to, those discussed in InfoSpace.com's Annual Report on Form 10-K, in the section entitled "Factors Affecting InfoSpace.com's Operating Results, Business Prospects and Market Price of Stock." Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. InfoSpace.com undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
CONTACT: Clay Owen of Cingular Wireless, 404-249-4680, or clay_owen@bscc.bls.com; or Karen Hynes, PR Manager, Merchant Services of InfoSpace, 206-357-4456, or karenh@go2net.com
SOURCE InfoSpace
/CONTACT: Clay Owen of Cingular Wireless, 404-249-4680, or
clay_owen@bscc.bls.com; or Karen Hynes, PR Manager, Merchant Services of
InfoSpace, 206-357-4456, or karenh@go2net.com/
/Photo: newscom.com
AP Archive: photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 201-369-3467/
/Web site: mywirelesswindow.com
/Web site: cingular.com
/Web site: infospace.com |
