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Press Releases
2003.04.25

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ACCESS’ Multimedia Messaging Software for China Unicom Integrated in Seven Mobile Phone Handsets Including Sanyo SCP-580, Motorola V860 and Hisense C3698

Tokyo, Japan / Fremont, CA, USA / Oberhausen, Germany – April 25, 2003 – ACCESS Co. Ltd. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813), a leading supplier of embedded software for mobile telephones, PDAs, Internet appliances, car navigation systems and other non-PC devices, announced that seven mobile phone manufacturers including Sanyo, Motorola, Hisense and Haier, launched sales in China this month of handsets embedded with ACCESS’ multimedia messaging software. The mobile phones feature multimedia mail service (U-Mail) running on CDMA 2000 1X network (U-Max) provided by China United Telecommunications Corporation, the second largest telecommunications operator in mainland China. China Unicom launched these services last month.

License contracts for the software were concluded between ACCESS’ subsidiary in China, ACCESS China Inc., and 18 mobile phone manufacturers based on a cooperative agreement signed between China Unicom and ACCESS in August last year.

From May 2003 onwards, additional manufacturers will launch sales of handsets with ACCESS multimedia messaging software embedded in units.

ACCESS’ M-IMAP technology is based on the widely adopted IMAP4/SMTP protocol but has been fully optimized for the mobile network. M-IMAP technology is compatible with Internet e-mail, therefore fully interoperable with PC and Internet-based e-mails, without any protocol translation. Besides its full-scale e-mail functionality, M-IMAP is very easy to use and it allows multiple attachments of up to 100K each. To meet specific market requirements and China Unicom’s network, ACCESS provided further functionality enhancements and technology innovation, for example M-IMAP has been extended to natively support SMIL content, making it fully interoperable with MMS.

“We are very pleased that mobile phones embedded with our multimedia messaging software will be launched in the Chinese market, the development of which was based on our cooperative agreement with China Unicom. We believe that the multifunction e-mail features for mobile phones, widely used in Japan and Europe, will also be accepted in the Chinese market and that it will become indispensable to the lifestyle of end-users in China,” said Toru Arakawa, president and chief executive officer of ACCESS Co., Ltd.

About ACCESS Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries
ACCESS Co., Ltd. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813) is a global provider of mobile content delivery and access technologies for information appliances. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, its subsidiaries abroad include ACCESS Systems America, Inc. in Fremont, California, ACCESS Systems Europe GmbH, its German subsidiary in Oberhausen, Germany, and ACCESS China Inc., its Chinese subsidiary in Beijing. Together with its foreign subsidiaries and contact offices in Korea, Taiwan and Spain, ACCESS has pursued an international strategy promoting its NetFrontfamily of browser software to operators and manufacturers globally. ACCESS’ NetFront family of browser technology is the leading browser embedded in televisions, set top boxes, game consoles, PDAs, car navigation systems, web phones and specialized handsets. Its micro-browser, Compact NetFront, is most widely deployed in phones for NTT DoCoMo’s popular i-mode service. ACCESS’ embedded NetFront and Compact NetFront browsers power approximately 86 million units spanning 230 different commercial product lines, manufactured by over 80 different companies (as of February 2003).

ACCESS was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market on February 26, 2001.


ACCESS is a registered trademark in Japan. NetFront is registered trademark of ACCESS Co., Ltd. in Japan and other countries. i-mode is a registered trademark of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S and other countries.

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