CNN Interactive and Nokia Join Forces to Develop CNN Mobile, 24-Hour News Service for Digital Mobile Phones

(February 23, 1999) EuroTel Praha, Hong Kong Telecom, Mobile One, New World Mobility, Orange Israel, Smartone, Sonera, Sonofon and Telia Sign on as CNN Mobile Charter Operators

CNN Interactive today launched CNN Mobile, the first mobile telephone news and information service to be available globally with pan-regional content. CNN Interactive worked closely with Nokia to develop the platform for CNN Mobile. The service, which is initially targeted at GSM mobile phone customers in Europe and Asia/Pacific, is the latest way that consumers can access CNN while they are on the go and at any time they choose. CNN Mobile is the world's first global value-added service to be built on the Wireless Application Protocol. CNN Interactive commercially licenses and markets CNN Mobile.

"We are living in an active world, and now through CNN Mobile, CNN will offer mobile phone customers the news they want, whenever they want it, from the company they trust," said Mark Bernstein, general manager of CNN Interactive and senior vice president, CNN. "Our close cooperation with Nokia, the market leader in the wireless world, has allowed CNN to develop a comprehensive news service that not only takes advantage of the existing technologies, but also will have an evolutionary path due to the latest developments in mobile phone technology."

Bernstein added, "We are excited that nine pioneering operators from Europe and Asia are committed to offering this flexible and wide-ranging news service to their customers, and we anticipate other leading-edge operators will adopt the service to enhance their value-added services. When all the charter operators have implemented the service, CNN Mobile will be available to nearly eight million customers in seven countries."

"CNN Mobile will benefit from CNN International's commitment to producing the most relevant, comprehensive and timely pan-regional news, available anywhere in the world," said Nan Richards, president, News Networks, Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) Europe Ltd. "This month CNN International announced a significant increase in the amount of regionalized programming from London and Hong Kong. We will significantly enhance our European and Asian news coverage and will add more than 70 additional staff."

"CNN Mobile, from the world's leading news provider, is the type of service that Nokia believes is in great demand among trend-setting mobile phone users," said Anssi Vanjoki, senior vice president, Nokia Mobile Phones, Europe and Africa. "Both CNN and Nokia have been pioneers and leading innovators in their own fields of business. Now these two companies have joined forces in bringing together the latest mobile communications expertise and global news content. I am confident that value-added services, such as CNN Mobile, are the winning formula for the mobile industry."

CNN Mobile's content is optimized for SMS delivery and supports the Smart Messaging concept developed by Nokia, which today is used by several GSM operators. CNN Mobile also is Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) compliant, and the use of WAP technology will allow CNN interactive to develop multimedia content to be delivered to the screens of WAP mobile phone devices. WAP is an open and global standard, which is optimized to deliver value-added services to digital mobile phones via wireless networks. The CNN Mobile service is independent of mobile phone manufacturer, gateway server manufacturer or network provider.

CNN Mobile's nine charter operators in Europe are EuroTel Praha (Czech Republic), Orange Israel, Sonera (Finland), Sonofon (Denmark) and Telia (Sweden); and in Asia, Mobile One (Singapore), Hong Kong Telecom, New World Mobility and Smartone (Hong Kong). CNN Mobile at launch is available to Sonera's 1.45 million GSM subscribers in Finland; the other charter operators will begin transmitting the service between March and June 1999 with Orange Israel launching the service later in the year. Operators may allow customers to access the service via SMS or may choose to push the latest CNN news and information to their customers.

Produced by the same team responsible for the award-winning Web site CNN.com, CNN Mobile features: breaking news, world news and regional news (Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and United States); weather temperatures and forecasts; world business news, market updates and currency rates; world sports news and scores; entertainment news; travel city guides; and features. Operators will customize the service based on their market and their subscribers' interests. CNN Interactive updates the CNN Mobile service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. News headlines and market information are updated every 30 minutes, and sports scores and weather forecasts are updated regularly throughout the day. Breaking news is delivered immediately.

CNN Mobile leverages CNN's worldwide newsgathering organization encompassing more than 3,500 news professionals in 34 bureaus and more than 750 broadcast affiliates worldwide. A dedicated team of journalists produces the service from CNN Interactive's newsroom in Atlanta and in CNN's London bureau. The CNN Mobile staff also will draw upon the international and pan-regional news programming produced from CNN's production centers in Atlanta, Berlin, Hong Kong, London, New York and Washington, D.C.

CNN Interactive is responsible for the award-winning news site CNN.com, as well as seven other Web sites and the distribution of CNN news content via other distribution platforms such as PageNet pagers, iMagic's PowerPhones and PointCast. The CNN Web sites generate more traffic and attract more unduplicated Internet users than any other company's general news and information Web sites. The CNN Web sites averaged 105 million page impressions per week during January 1998 and served a total of 4.4 billion page impressions during 1998. For more information on CNN Mobile, visit www.CNN.com/Mobile.

Nokia is the world's leading mobile phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile and fixed telecom networks including related customer services. Nokia also supplies solutions and products for fixed and wireless datacom, as well as multimedia terminals and computer monitors. In 1998, net sales totaled FIM 79.2 billion (USD 15.7 billion, EUR 13.3 billion). Headquartered in Finland, Nokia is listed on five European Stock Exchanges and on the New York Stock Exchange (NOK.A), has sales in over 130 countries and employs more than 44,000 people worldwide.