Synchronica wins US$1.05 mln Mobile Gateway order in Indonesia

Mobile email and data synchronisation group Synchronica PLC (AIM: SYNC) said it has signed its biggest contract to date for its mobile email product Mobile Gateway with a distributor for one of Indonesia's largest mobile operators, worth US$1.05m for 300,000 devices over a period of 12 months.
Investors liked the news, sending the shares up nearly 17 percent in early trade.

Under the deal, the distributor will sell Synchronica's Mobile Gateway product bundled with mobile phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola and LG, as well as MessagePhones, in the carrier´s mobile phone shops to provide push email, synchronisation and instant messaging services.

 Indonesia, the fourth most populous country after China, India and the US, has approximately 160 million mobile phone users, nearly two thirds of the population. The country's three largest mobile operators have between 29 and 80 million subscribers each. As only 10 percent of Indonesians have access to the internet, Synchronica believes that the mobile phone can become the primary tool for accessing the internet, email and instant messaging and thus expects a successful takeup for the Mobile Gateway service.

According to Business Monitor International's latest Telecommunications Report for Q2 2010, the total number of mobile subscribers in Indonesia is expected to rise to 360 million by 2014, reaching a penetration rate of 144 percent, Synchronica said. The report also forecasts that the number of 3G users will grow by 28.4% to 12 million in 2010, which will account for 5.8% of the total mobile subscriber base as operators are driving up investments in 3G, a result of the low tariffs assigned to their 2G services.

Only last week, Synchronica announced it received a purchase order worth US$65,910 for an initial 50,000 annual licenses from a telecommunications operator in the Middle East for Mobile Gateway.  The deal includes the provision of professional services.

The order was the sixth order from the same Pan African and Middle Eastern group to select Synchronica's Mobile Gateway solution, and brought the total number of user licenses amongst subsidiaries of this group to 360,000. The orders received so far are for initial volumes and between them the six subsidiaries have over 60 million mobile phone subscribers.

In February, Synchronica and partner Korean device manufacturer KC Mobile launched MessagePhone, the low-cost mobile device aimed at emerging markets.  Synchronica announced the collaboration agreement to develop the device in July 2009, but had until February not disclosed the manufacturing partner.

MessagePhone comes bundled with then Mobile Gateway product and an HTML browser to enable push email and mobile synchronization services, mobile instant messaging, web browsing and access to social networking sites for users across Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and South-East Asia.

Under the collaboration agreement, Synchronica will receive a commission of 3% of the net sales revenue from the sales of the MessagePhones. This revenue will be in addition to licence, professional services, support and hosting revenues from Mobile Gateway.

In the week prior to the launch, the company received the second purchase order for the MessagePhone, for 20,000 devices from one of the largest worldwide operator groups in emerging markets. The first order was placed in November 2009 by a Central-African mobile operator which had purchased a 100,000 user license for Mobile Gateway only days prior to the MessagePhone order.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/14175/synchronica-wins-us105-mln-mobile-gateway-order-in-indonesia-14175.html