UK OPERATOR ANNOUNCES “BT DATAZONE” WITH
GLOBETROTTER FUSION QUAD™ AND GLOBETROTTER 3G QUAD™
tLeuven – Belgium, October 4, 2005 – Option N.V. (Euronext: OPTI, OTC: OPNVY), the wireless technology company, today announced that BT has selected the GlobeTrotter 3G QUAD™ and GlobeTrotter FUSION QUAD™ wireless data card devices to launch “BT Datazone”, releasing the full power of mobile broadband data services for its business customers.
tBT markets the wireless data cards under Option’s own brand as part of the “BT Datazone” offering. Option is the only company world wide with a commercialized 3G/Wi-Fi “FUSION” data card and is currently the sole supplier of data cards to BT.
BT Group (LSE: BT-AL; NYSE: BT) is one of world’s leading providers of communications solutions serving customers in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Its principal activities include local, national and international telecommunications services, higher-value broadband and internet products and services, and IT solutions. In the UK, BT serves over 20 million business and residential customers with more than 29 million exchange lines, as well as providing network services to other licensed operators.
ttBT considers the launch of “BT DataZone” to be an important step towards meeting the company’s convergence vision, of being able to access all your information regardless of where they are in the world, on your choice of device and over the most suitable network. Both 3G wireless data cards from Option enable the realisation of this vision by automatically connecting BT’s mobile business users to the best network available be it 3G/GPRS, or one of the 30,000 BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide. BT Openzone boasts 7,800 Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK, located in places such as McDonald’s restaurants, BA Executive Lounges and hotspots operated under service agreement with The Cloud.
Option’s GlobeTrotter 3G QUAD™ and the GlobeTrotter FUSION QUAD™, are world’s first 5-band broadband wireless data cards combining in a single PC data card, 3G UMTS at 2100 MHz for EMEA markets and Quad band GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 MHz for worldwide markets, whilst the FUSION series also provides on board Wi-Fi/WLAN 802.11g connectivity.
For more information please contact
Douglas Ros, Vice President Business Development & Marketing
Tel +32 (0)16 317 411
E-mail: d.ros@option.com
Frederic Convent, CFO
Tel + 32 (0) 16 317 411
E-mail: investor@option.com
About Option
Option NV (www.option.com), the wireless technology company, is a leading innovator in the design, development and manufacture of 3G WCDMA (HSDPA and UMTS), EDGE, GPRS, GSM and WLAN technology products for wireless connectivity solutions. Option has built up an enviable reputation for creating exciting products that enhance the performance and functionality of wireless communications. Option’s headquarters are in Leuven, Belgium. The company has Research & Development in Leuven, a Software and Applications development centre in Adelsried (Germany) and an ISO 9002 production engineering and logistics facility in Cork, Ireland.
Keywords: Datacards, HSDPA, data card, GlobeTrotter, EDGE, WLAN, Wi-Fi, GlobeTrotter 3G, GlobeTrotter 3G QUAD, GlobeTrotter FUSION QUAD, EDGE data card, GPRS, Hotspot, Openzone