PALO ALTO, California, May 20 /PRNewswire/ --

- GSM and CDMA Versions Now Available for Service Providers Worldwide; SDK Opened to Mobile Application Developers

Aricent, the world's largest private communications software company, today announced the worldwide availability of the award-winning Celltop, a mobile client framework that enables the delivery of next-generation content, commerce and communication services across GSM and CDMA networks. Celltop allows mobile service providers to transform the user experience by providing easy access to data services and applications.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080520/305932 )

In addition, the Celltop software development kit (SDK) for both BREW uiOne and J2ME handset platforms is now available for third party developers, content providers and aggregators to create future cells for the Celltop platform.

Following an initial launch on selected Alltel Wireless phones in January 2007, Celltop comes pre-installed as standard on the majority of Alltel feature phones. Alltel is owner and operator of the largest network in the United States and has more than 13 million customers.

Celltop is similar to the personalized short-cuts on the desktop of a personal computer and is based on the widget concept, Celltop solves the problem of content discovery by giving users the ability to personalize and manage content in cells. This functionality dramatically reduces the obstacle of multiple click-throughs and allows users to easily reach their desired content faster and easier than before.

"The ability to market Celltop to service providers worldwide coupled with the opportunity to continue to build on its original innovation strongly positions Aricent for continued growth," said William Ho, research director at Current Analysis, a Washington D.C.-based research and analysis company.

"Celltop has been a tremendous success for Alltel Wireless," said Dow Draper senior vice president of data and voice products for Alltel. "Celltop gives our customers easy, personalized access to important information on their phones, providing an exceptional wireless experience."

The Celltop mobile client framework is available to network operators delivering new services and products. The framework includes ready-to-run cells such as inbox, stocks, weather, news, call-log and ring-tones, and can be customized by network operators to offer a consistent and branded user experience to encourage use of data and value-added services. Consumers also have access to a whole host of subscription-based cells including a cheap fuel locator, music downloads and streaming radio.

Cells currently in development offer multilingual capabilities (including Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi). Additionally, Celltop incorporates watermark technology allowing advertisements to be superimposed on the base screen or wallpaper of the mobile handset. Network operators can offer customers the choice of 'opt-in/opt-out' for delivery of this targeted content.

"With Celltop, a greater range of consumers can now easily interact with handheld data while harnessing the data capabilities of CDMA and the global reach of GSM technology," said Sanjay Dhawan, president and chief operating officer, Aricent. "Already available on handsets and backed by a growing community of software developers, Celltop delivers content more efficiently than other current solutions. Now, mobile service providers worldwide can enrich the user experience and increase the adoption of existing data networks and new revenue-generating services."

Alltel Wireless and Celltop were recognized as Best in Show at the 2007 Emerging Technology Awards at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association show and received the People's Choice Award and Best Business/Productivity Application Award at the QUALCOMM BREW 2007 Developer Conference. The Celltop interface and SDK are now generally available through Aricent. For more information refer to http://aricent.com/celltop.

Keywords & tags: Celltop, content discovery, mobile widget, on device portal, mobile user experience, mobile advertising, mobile sdk, alltel, software development kit, CDMA, GSM, BREW, uiOne, J2ME, communications software

About Aricent

With corporate offices in Palo Alto, California, Aricent is the world's largest private communications software company. Aricent offers software services and products that enable communications equipment manufacturers, device manufacturers and service providers to improve time-to-revenue and maximize efficiency. The company is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Sequoia Capital and Flextronics International Ltd and has more than 400 clients worldwide. For more information, visit http://aricent.com.

About Alltel

Alltel is owner and operator of America's largest network and serves more than 13 million customers. For more information about Alltel, please visit http://www.alltel.com

Aricent and Celltop are trademarks of Aricent, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For further information, contact: Trevor Strudley, Aricent, Tel: +1-650-391-1611, Email: trevor.strudley@aricent.com; Satinder Juneja, Aricent, Tel : +91-124-409-5888 xtn: 377, Email : satinder.juneja@aricent.com; Lucie Pathmann, Alltel Wireless, Tel: +1-501-905-5553, Email: lucie.r.pathmann@alltel.com; Andrew Moreau, Alltel Wireless, Tel: +1-501-905-7962, Email: andrew.moreau@alltel.com; US - Schwartz Communications, Merrill Freund, Tel: +1-415-512-0770, Email: aricentcorp@schwartz-pr.com; Europe - AxiCom, Kate Stevens, Tel: +44-208-392-4050, Email: aricent@axicom.com