Rednano Mobile receives international "Best Consumer Service Innovation" accolade for its location-based directory search service

Singapore, 17 June 2009 – SPH Search has been selected from among service providers and telecoms operators around the world for an international award for innovation.The company, a subsidiary of Singapore Press Holdings, was presented on 16 June, Tuesday evening (London time) with the “Best Consumer Service Innovation” prize for its unique location-based service for mobile users called “Rednano Locate”.

This was on the sidelines of the Global Telecoms Business Innovation Summit in London, an annual gathering organised by the Global Telecoms Business magazine, read by senior managers who run telecoms companies worldwide.

SPH Search, which is behind the local search and directory website www.rednano.sg, provides a mobile services platform, Rednano Mobile, which created Rednano Locate.

It won the award jointly with Acision, the messaging company that was responsible for the service’s backend infrastructure and client user interface on mobile handsets.

Ms Shirley Tan, Director of Business Development (Mobile), received the award on behalf of SPH Search at the black-tie Innovation Award dinner held yesterday evening at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London.

Rednano Locate, Singapore’s first location-based directory and search service, allows users to retrieve information of businesses or services in close proximity to their location via four integrated service offerings – Directory search, Maps, ‘live’ Traffic updates and Promotions - using their mobile phones. Users are not charged for data or content downloads when using the free service.

With Directory, users can search from more than 120,000 businesses, whether retail outlets, restaurants or petrol stations, for instance, located near to wherever they are and get full addresses, contact details and a Map link to navigate their way there. Users can also access ‘live’ Traffic updates to plan their route. They can also enjoy more than 500 exclusive promotions and discounts within their vicinity, available a click away from the Promotions tab.

Users get to enjoy four distinct advantages that Rednano Locate offers:
 

· Users are not charged for data or content downloads.
· Rednano Locate is available to all mobile subscribers, regardless of the telecommunication providers users subscribe to.
· Rednano Locate is not dependent on GPS. Thus, users are able to use it both indoors and outdoors.
· Rednano Locate is currently supported on a wide range of handsets with the following operating systems: Symbian, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. By end June 2009, phones that support Java platforms will also be supported.

The Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards event was first presented in 2007 and aims to honour innovative projects involving telecoms operators and service providers around the world, in association with their vendors and suppliers.

Editor of Global Telecoms Business, Alan Burkitt-Gray, said “We were impressed by the quality and number of nominations this year — the most we have ever had — so it was a special triumph for Acision and SPH to be one of the winners this year. This was an outstanding project and well deserves their award. This project stood out, even though the competition was strong, and it just had to be one of the winners. Well done to all involved. The industry is seeing a wave of innovation which is making a huge difference — to the companies working in the industry and to all of us in business and as consumers.”

Paul Jansen, Chief Executive at SPH Search, said: “This is a major achievement for us. Thanks to the help of our partners Acision and Seeker Wireless, we were able to launch Rednano Locate quickly within 6 months, to meet Singaporeans’ demand for information about products and services in their immediate vicinity.”

Shirley Tan, Director of Business Development (Mobile) added, “We are working to ensure that Rednano Locate is supported by most of the mobile phones in the market by the end of June 2009. We are currently collaborating with handset makers like HTC and RIM to have Rednano Locate pre-loaded in their mobile devices. This award will certainly present us more opportunities to work with other mobile phone manufacturers.”

Rory Buckley, Chief Executive of Acision, commented “We are thrilled at the recognition that winning this award brings. Working with SPH Search, Acision has successfully delivered the first innovative search solution to the mobile handset. This award further endorses that we are at the forefront of service innovation, delivering superior quality value and the best mobile experience to consumers.”

Users can download and install Rednano Locate into their mobile phones via SMS shortcode 33333, Rednano’s WAP portal at mobile.rednano.sg or from Rednano Mobile website www.rednano.sg/mobile.

Users who wish to know more about using Rednano Locate can visit the Blackberry booth at CommunicAsia 2009, Singapore Expo, from 16 to 19 June 2009.