LONDON, UK, Feb. 7, 2000 - As another indicator of how wireless is gaining ground as the delivery system of the Internet, Sweden's leading mobile operator, Telia Mobile, today announced that Cisco Systems is to build the company's new national mobile data network infrastructure based entirely on IP technology.

This new development will enable Telia Mobile, one of the world's most innovative mobile operators with a major share of the Swedish market, to provide new and innovative datacom applications and services to business and consumer customers as they appear, and to handle the continued exponential growth in IP network traffic, using Cisco's high-speed routers and switches and IP (Internet Protocol) technology.

With the recent upgrade in the processing power of mobile phones through WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) - allowing users to access the Web via their mobile terminals - data traffic is now becoming even more prominent than voice for mobile operators. And with almost 60 percent of the population already wired to the Internet, Sweden is embracing the Internet faster than almost any other country in the world.

This has prompted the move for Telia Mobile to establish an IP-backbone network as a cost-saving measure and a way to deal with increased data loads, as well as paving a way for it to provision future wireless communications services.

The IP backbone network will also be used as the core network for GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), a more flexible, efficient and faster way of transmitting data to mobile phones, and UMTS (Universal Mobile telecommunications System), a user-driven service that will make global communications effortless and enable new services demanding high bandwidth, such as video.

"With the new network from Cisco, Telia Mobile will enhance its existing platform for advanced mobile services which today includes Unified Messaging and Internet Services within the DOF concept," said Jan Karmakar, director of Research and Development, Telia Mobile." The IP backbone network is a resource that will speed up and simplify the implementation of future IP based services and will eventually be used to produce future mobile voice and multimedia services."

According to Paul Mountford, Cisco's vice president of Service Provider Operations in Europe Middle East and Africa, "Working with Telia Mobile is yet another step forward in bringing the Internet Revolution to as many people as possible. With Cisco's expertise in IP and Telia Mobile's vanguard thinking, as one of the first mobile operators to join the New World of IP, businesses and consumers will reap the benefits of what wireless communications combined with the Internet can afford."