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 GEMPLUS BANKNOTE DELIVERS SIM CARDS AND SERVICES TO SERCOMTEL CELULAR IN BRAZIL
Sercomtel Celular is the Eighteenth Mobile Operator in Latin America and the Second in Brazil to Choose Gemplus’ S@T Technology
Luxembourg, Sao Paulo, Brazil – November 17, 2003 – Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 – GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world’s leading provider of smart card solutions, today announces an agreement between Gemplus BankNote, a joint venture with American BankNote in Brazil, and Sercomtel Celular to deliver SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards, an OTA (Over-the-Air) SIM card management solution, a Dynamic SIM Tool Kit (S@T) architecture and set of services for the operator’s GSM network launch in Brazil. Sercomtel is the eighteenth mobile operator in Latin America and the second in Brazil to choose Gemplus’ S@T technology.
Sercomtel Celular SIM card solution uses 64K cards for GSM produced by Gemplus BankNote. Sercomtel Celular will benefit from Gemplus’ leading SIM Toolkit (STK) architecture based on the latest S@T specifications, and its Over the Air (OTA) platform, allowing the operator and user to remotely update the information and/or applications secured within the card.
“SIM cards and S@T offer Sercomtel Celular a unique opportunity to offer a wide range of data and information services from day one, allowing us to get closer to our subscribers and increase traffic on our mobile network,” said Wanderley Rezende Neiva, Director of Engineering for Sercomtel Celular. “Gemplus BankNote has offered extensive technical support, customer service, and manufacturing expertise from its Brazilian facility and we are pleased to work alongside them for our GSM migration.”
“Sercomtel Celular’s choice to work with Gemplus BankNote for its GSM launch underscores Gemplus BankNote’s strong position in the growing Brazilian GSM market. Sercomtel expects to benefit from a scalable solution to sustain its migration from TDMA. Gemplus BankNote takes this into account and brings highly efficient local expertise. We are proud to work with a technologically aggressive operator like Sercomtel Celular to help them evangelize the security and convenience benefits of SIM cards among their subscribers,” said Guillaume Lafaix, Telecom Marketing Director for Latin America at Gemplus. “Brazil is an extremely important and exciting market for Gemplus, and one where we look forward to concentrating our resources and expanding in the future.”
In 2002 alone, the Brazilian GSM market experienced explosive growth with an anticipated 1.5 million GSM subscribers by year-end. By August 2003, Brazil had more than 4 million GSM subscribers . GSM subscribers across all Latin American countries should reach an expected 21 million by the end of 2005.
About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world’s leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source 2002: Gartner-Dataquest, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). Gemplus has the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding track record of technological innovation.
Gemplus helps its clients offer an exceptional range of portable and personalized solutions that bring security and convenience to people’s lives. These include Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Identity, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, access control, and a wealth of other applications.
Gemplus’s revenue in 2002 was 787 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
About Gemplus BankNote
Gemplus offers local manufacturing and personalization capabilities and improved delivery time to Brazilian GSM operators through Gemplus BankNote, a joint venture with Gemplus and American BankNote. In operation since 1998 in Sao Paulo, Gemplus BankNote also was the first and only SIM card provider to offer local value-added product packaging to Brazilian operators. With these services, operators can rely on a single provider to deliver the SIM card as well as all documentation and guides packaged professionally together, ready to be delivered to the operator’s point-of-sale. In addition, Gemplus BankNote manages the stocks inside the plant, reducing costs for the operators and giving a much better time to market.
About Sercomtel Celular
Sercomtel is a leading mobile telecom operator in Brazil. Sercomtel has been introducing advanced telecommunications technology to the Brazilian market, since the first deployment of a TDMA digital network in 1996 and the total digitalization of its fixed telecom services, up to its expansion to GSM networks, next December.
Sercomtel was the first mobile telecommunication service provider to operate in Brazil and is the only public telecom operator in the country.
©2003 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus and the Gemplus logo are trademarks and service marks of Gemplus S.A. and are registered in certain countries. All other trademarks and service marks, whether registered or not in specific countries, are the property of their respective owners.
Some of the statements contained in this release constitute forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activities, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking statements contained in this release include, but are not limited to: trends in wireless communication and mobile commerce markets; our ability to develop new technology, and the effects of competing technologies developed and expected intense competition generally in our main markets; profitability of our expansion strategy; challenges to or loss of our intellectual property rights; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in our major businesses; our ability to develop and take advantage of new software and services; and the effect of future acquisitions and investments on our share price. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of this release. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after this date to conform such statements to actual results or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results.
For more information:
Gemplus
Kerry Butler
Phone: +1 215 390 2840
Email: kerry.butler@gemplus.com
Edelman
Natalia Martinez
Phone: +54 11 4315 4020 ext. 33
Email: natalia.martinez@edelman.com
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