GSM Europe Press Releases

Stockholm, Sweden, 11 June 2001 - GSM Europe, the European interest group of the GSM Association, will gather in Stockholm this week (14 and 15 June 2001) for its 20th Plenary meeting, examining among other issues the challenges raised by the development of M-commerce for European operators.

Speaking in Stockholm before the group's meeting, Caroline van Weede, GSM Europe Chair, commented: "This meeting will examine several key issues facing the European mobile industry, and it will focus particularly on how operators can maximise M-commerce business opportunities with other players."

"The meeting will also look at other areas where operators are testing or launching new initiatives such as GRX for GPRS roaming or location based services when roaming," added van Weede.

Hosted by Telia Mobile Sweden, Anders Bruse, President of Telia Mobile Sweden, will give an overview of Telia Mobile activities and of the latest telecoms developments in Sweden.

"We are delighted to be hosting GSM Europe's 20th Plenary Meeting. The meeting is a great forum for GSM members to exchange views on European and national developments in the industry," commented Bruse.

Representatives of GSM Europe's 123 operator members from 50 countries/areas of Europe will determine action and progress for a wide range of critical path issues and examine the key challenges facing the region's wireless industry.

"A key issue faced by our members is the balance between players in mobile Internet and mobile commerce. We will look at the future for m-commerce and the implications for mobile operators and other players such as financial institutions. The GSM Association's Services Group (SerG) will set out some views on M-commerce from an operator's perspective," added van Weede.

Plenary delegates will also be briefed on the progress of GSM Europe's key working parties, with highlights of the main issues and challenges ahead for the rest of the year, including: the future regulatory framework for telecoms, 3GSM network roll out and services, environment matters, spectrum issues and data protection, among many others.


Notes for editors:

About the GSM Association:

The GSM Association is the world's leading wireless industry representative body, consisting of more than 538 second and third generation wireless network operators and key manufacturers and suppliers to the wireless industry. Membership of the Association spans 169 countries of the world.

The GSM Association is responsible for the deployment and evolution of the GSM family of technologies (GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3GSM) for digital wireless communications. The Association's members provide digital GSM wireless services to more than 537 million customers (as of end May 2001). The GSM system accounts for approximately 70 percent of the total digital cellular wireless market.

GSM is a registered trademark

About GSM Europe:

GSM Europe is the European interest group of the GSM Association, the premier global body behind the world's leading wireless communications standard. GSM Europe represents around 123 operators in 50 countries/areas in Europe and counts around 320 million subscribers.

For more information, please contact:

Liz Macfarlan
The GSM Association
Tel: +44 207 518 0533
Fax: +44 207 518 0531
E-Mail: lmacfarlan@gsm.org

Or

Isabelle Mauro
Director, GSM Europe
Tel: +44 207 518 0549
Fax: +44 207 518 0531
E-Mail: imauro@gsm.org