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Press Releases
2003.03.17

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ACCESS Works With QUALCOMM to Offer New Browser for the BREW™ Platform

NetFrontv3.0 Delivers Internet Browsing for BREW-Enabled Phones

CTIA 2003, New Orleans, LA – March 17, 2003 – ACCESS (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813), a global provider of mobile content delivery and access technologies, announced today that its NetFront v3.0 browser is now available in a version developed for QUALCOMM’s Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) platform. The NetFront v3.0 browser can be downloaded over the air to a BREW-enabled handset, to extend the capabilities of the handset to include browsing of advanced Internet content. ACCESS will be demonstrating their NetFront browser in QUALCOMM’s Partner Pavilion (Booth # 5331) at CTIA Wireless 2003 in New Orleans, March 17-19, 2003.

NetFront is WAP 2.0 compliant and supports the most advanced specifications of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). The NetFront browser is deployed in approximately 200 devices, including mobile handsets, PDA’s and automobile telematics, totaling 80 million licenses.

“ACCESS has a long history of updating and enhancing the NetFront browser to support new advances in mobile technology,” said Toru Arakawa, president and CEO, ACCESS Co., Ltd. “The exciting new applications and commerce models made possible by the BREW platform are further enhanced by ACCESS’ advanced mobile Internet browsing capabilities. ACCESS is proud to partner with QUALCOMM to deliver this next level of functionality to the marketplace.”

“We are delighted that ACCESS has decided to port their NetFront browser on BREW,” said Gina Lombardi, senior vice president of marketing and product management, QUALCOMM Internet Services. “NetFront is an advanced browser used throughout the world that will give BREW users the option of browsing Internet content in an optimized fashion for a wide variety of consumer and business purposes.”

Deployments of the BREW solution continue as operators throughout the world join Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL in the United States, KTF in South Korea, KDDI in Japan, and China Unicom in commercializing BREW-based services. The Joint Venture between Telefónica Móviles and Portugal Telecom plans to roll out BREW services to subscribers in Latin America this month, and U.S. Cellular has launched a BREW user trial. More than 40 BREW-enabled handset models have been offered to consumers worldwide and more than 40 device manufacturers have indicated their interest in the BREW platform.

QUALCOMM’s BREW solution is a complete product and business ecosystem for the development and over-the-air deployment of data services on wireless devices. The BREW solution provides the necessary tools and value-added services to developers, device manufacturers and wireless operators for applications development and distribution, device configuration, and billing and payment.

About NetFront
NetFront v3.0 is a modular, scalable browser designed to meet the unique requirements of resource-constrained consumer information appliances, delivering high performance and an extensive feature set with low memory and power requirements. NetFront’s modular architecture allows for custom configurations for specific target hardware. This unique scalability allows NetFront v3.0 to cover a broad range of appliance profiles from mobile phones to digital televisions. In addition to the latest W3C specifications HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, NetFront v3.0 supports enhanced features such as Dynamic HTML, ECMA Script (JavaScript), DOM (Document Object Model), CSS, and SSL (Secure Socket Layer). JV-Lite2, a J2ME compliant Java runtime environment, and an MMS client are also available as optional modules.

About ACCESS Co., Ltd. and ACCESS Systems America, Inc.
ACCESS Co., Ltd. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813) is a global provider of integrated data platforms and Internet access technologies for the mobile communications market. ACCESS develops and markets PCSS, an integrated platform that enables wireless network operators to rapidly deploy value-added data services on 2.5G and 3G networks and generate revenue from premium branded third-party content. ACCESS’ embedded NetFront and Compact NetFront browsers power over 191 different commercial products worldwide. The NetFront microbrowser is most widely deployed in phones for NTT DoCoMo’s popular i-mode service. ACCESS Co. Ltd. is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with ACCESS Systems America, its U.S. subsidiary, in Fremont, California. ACCESS Systems Europe is located in Oberhausen, Germany and ACCESS (Beijing) Co., Ltd in Beijing, China. More information is available at www.access.co.jp and www.access-us-inc.com.


ACCESS is a registered trademark in Japan. NetFront, Compact NetFront are registered trademarks of ACCESS Co., Ltd. in Japan. NetFront is a registered trademark of NetFront Communications, Inc. in the United States and is used under license. i-mode and FOMA are registered trademarks of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

QUALCOMM is a registered trademark of QUALCOMM Incorporated. BREW is a trademark of QUALCOMM Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contacts

Asia Contact:
ACCESS Co., Ltd., Japan
Kazunori Takahashi
81 (3) 5259-3685
prinfo@access.co.jpcom
Europe Contact:
ACCESS Systems Europe GmbH
Claudia Hoeck
49 (208) 8290-6432
hoeck@access-sys-eu.com
China Contact:
ACCESS China Inc.
Delia Liu
86 (10) 6566-9636
delia_cn@access.co.jp
US Contacts:
ACCESS Systems America
Manuel Morales
(510) 284-0708
mmorales@access-us-inc.com
Bite Communications Anne-miek Hamelinck
(415) 614-3622
annemiek@bitepr.com