MobileWeb announces today 2 important upgrades of our SMS messaging platform:

• The implementation of Telenet as a separate mobile operator
• Complete support of special characters such as €, é, à, … in SMS messages

We hereby also inform you officially that as from October 15th 2010 modified GOF Guidelines will apply to SMS services in Belgium. Additionally we introduce you to our new team members.

Finally, please note in your agenda that we organize the 5th edition of the Web Goes Mobile Seminar on Wednesday December 8th, under the theme: « Tablets : new business for media ? »

Telenet : fourth mobile operator

Since October 11th, Telenet has become a full MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). This implies that Telenet will now manage on its own infrastructure and billing systems its mobile subscribers. Gradually Telenet will migrate its 170.000 mobile subscribers, who are currently handled by Mobistar, to its own systems.

For you, as a customer, this will not have any impact during the first year. MobileWeb has obtained special conditions for you with Telenet, who stay valid until September 30th 2011 :

• No extra shortcode fees will be applied
• You receive refunds or cash collection amounts who are equivalent to the ones from Mobistar

In order to make the transition as smooth as possible, MobileWeb has prepared the past weeks this technical and administrative migration :

• The technical connection with the Telenet SMS Platform is now fully operational and tested,
• All existing shortcodes have been activated on this platform and tested by our teams
• Premium SMS customers will receive as from november 2010 separate refunds or cash collection amounts for Telenet as a separate operator.

Modified GOF Guidelines as from October 15th 2010

Starting October 15th, the Belgian mobile operators will apply modified GOF Guidelines. The key changes of this new version :

• Treshold of 25 euro alert: Service Provider have to send a free message when the usage per shortcode and per calendar month exceeds 25 euro (effective as from January 1st 2011) (article B2.2)
• Premium WAP Push messages are not allowed any longer (B.3.2)
• Subscription services, initiated on the web, have to follow more strict rules in communicating the first opt-in (B.2.5.1)

Please read the entire text of these modified guidelines on our site www.mobileweb.be/gof

Complete support a special characters in SMS

Since October 7th, all SMS connectivity services of MobileWeb support a much broader set of characters in the SMS messages. As a result you can now without any problem send SMS containing characters €, é, è, à, @,…

This character set is supported on all mobile operators and is know as GSM 03.38. A more complete description is available on this link.