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Gemplus International S.A

Optimus Portugal Selects Gemplus' GemConnect Device Manager to Improve Customer Care and Boost Data Traffic

Luxembourg, November 14 (ots/PRNewswire)

Gemplus International
S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's
leading provider of smart card based solutions, today announces the
selection of its device management solution, GemConnect Device
Manager, by Optimus, the third largest mobile operator in Portugal.
Faced with increasing device complexity, Optimus was looking for a
solution to reduce the cost and time of customer care for device
configuration issues. Data services (MMS, email gateways etc.)
require a greater amount of handset configuration and set-up but the
majority of users don't know how to proceed or rarely read the
instruction manual. Consequently, customers are frustrated that their
sophisticated new phones seem complicated to use and operator's
customer service costs escalate due to demands on the call centre.
This ultimately impacts the revenue that can be generated from new
mobile services.
To address this, Gemplus' GemConnect Device Manager enables
Optimus to automatically identify the handsets in the field and
download the correct configuration over the air. Once in place, the
solution will help Optimus' call centre staff to identify and rectify
any potential configuration problems. Should a user change to a new
handset, the application automatically configures the new handset so
users will always get the most out of their mobile device.
Highlighting the level of complexity facing mobile operators
today, the solution at Optimus supports 233 different handsets in
total, including two 3G handsets, and has already demonstrated its
worth by reducing the time needed to resolve customer care issues by
a factor of three.
"With data services being one of the main drivers for our growth,
we are constantly expanding our data service offering to our
customers. To ensure that our customers were able to adopt these
services easily, we needed a solution that would make these services
simple to access and easy to use. There is a wealth of handsets
currently available, all of which differ in many ways. The
introduction of GemConnect Device Manager enables a significant
improvement in the end-to-end quality of service offered to our
customers and we give our customers more freedom to change the
handset. Additionally, by being able to remotely configure every
handset with the proper settings we ensure that the handsets do not
become the roadblock to new services," explained José Pinto Correia,
member of the board of Optimus.
GemConnect Device Manager enables customer care personnel to
instantly identify the handset model without asking the subscriber,
and enables them to configure the user's handset according to the
services supported (MMS, email, WAP, GPRS etc.). These services are
therefore made immediately accessible with no difficulty on the side
of the end-user. Subscribers are also able to use the solution via a
simple SMS-based interface, further reducing the number of calls to
the operator's call centre.
Philippe Vallée, Executive Vice President, Telecom Business Unit,
Gemplus, said "Not only does GemConnect Device Manager reduce the
burden on customer services, but it makes the whole mobile experience
user friendly for subscribers. They no longer have to manage
complicated service set-ups. Even if they change handsets, the
Gemplus OTA technology effortlessly makes services available."
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:
Gartner-Dataquest 2005, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). It has sold
over 5.5 billion smart cards.
Gemplus delivers a wide range of portable, personalised solutions
in areas including Identity, Mobile Telecommunications, Public
Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Healthcare, WLAN, Pay-TV,
e-government, and access control.
Gemplus' revenue in 2004 was 865 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
About Optimus
From its beginning in 1998, Optimus has been steadily growing in
the Portuguese market, having in view a sole objective: to be the
leader in the Portuguese telecom market, providing its Customers with
high-quality services and mobile phones that improve people's lives
because they simplify, bring near and amuse. Optimus had already over
2.1 million customers.
Optimus is the only mobile communications company in the world to
have won three consecutive GSM Awards, a distinction that reinforces
its international recognition. In Portugal, the new operator has also
won a number of important awards; its technological excellence has
also been recognised by the Institute of Communications of Portugal
by means of the results of a survey carried out by the sector
regulator regarding the quality of mobile networks in Portugal.
By constantly launching new products and services in the
Portuguese market - mobile portals, SMS news services, entertainment
services, GPRS services - Optimus is also the leader in terms of the
usage of new technologies.
For further information, please visit www.optimus.pt
(c)2005 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus, 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:
    Jane Strachey
    Gemplus
    Tel: +33-442364661/+33-676493593
    Email:  jane.strachey@gemplus.com
    Matthew McGuinness
    Edelman
    Tel: +44-207-344-1259
    Email:  matthew.mcguinness@edelman.com

Contact:

Jane Strachey, Gemplus, Tel: +33-442364661/+33-676493593, Email:
jane.strachey@gemplus.com. Matthew McGuinness, Edelman, Tel:
+44-207-344-1259, Email: matthew.mcguinness@edelman.com