SK Telecom launches WCDMA automatic roaming services with England’s T-Mobile, Netherland and Sweden’s Vodafone, Denmark’s Hi3G in England, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

Automatic roaming services allow the user to take his/her mobile phone overseas for usage without changing handsets or being designated a separate number. WCDMA automatic roaming services even allow video calling (video calling not available in Denmark).

With four European countries added, WCDMA roaming services may be used in a total of 12 countries, including countries where previously available, such as Italy, France, Germany and Spain. SK Telecom has built a foundation for deployment of a WCDMA roaming belt in the European region, from Sweden in the North to Spain and Italy in the South.

SK Telecom revealed that it will continue to expand WCDMA automatic roaming services in the Europe region, in countries such as Portugal, Finland and Austria, and in Asia in countries such as Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines.

Lee Sung-Young, head of SK Telecom’s Global Roaming Division, remarked, “The availability of WCDMA roaming in the Western European region, where a great deal of foreign travel demand is concentrated, will contribute to the promotion of WCDMA.”

Telefonica Moviles Espana, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced the availability of BlackBerry(R) Connect(TM) software for the Palm(R) Treo(TM) 650 smartphone in Spain. With BlackBerry Connect, movistar’s enterprise and multinational customers will benefit from a wider range of devices compatible with BlackBerry(R) services from movistar.

“Demand for wireless email solutions is driven by the need for increased productivity amongst movistar’s enterprise customers,” said Luis Ezcurra, general director of market development and marketing for Telefonica Moviles Espana. “Movistar believes that working closely with Palm and RIM to provide the feature-rich Treo 650 with BlackBerry Connect functionality will address this demand, as enterprise customers are very interested in investing in solutions that support their business, operational and IT objectives.”

With this expansion of the “BlackBerry from movistar” portfolio, Treo 650 smartphone customers can now benefit from many popular features of the “push”-based BlackBerry architecture via BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM). For corporate customers, BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with Microsoft(R) Exchange and IBM Lotus(R) Domino(R) and works with existing enterprise systems to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.

The Treo 650 smartphone with BlackBerry Connect supports the following features:

— “Push” Corporate Email delivers messages automatically — and wirelessly — to the Treo 650 smartphone’s inbox. Changes to the inbox, including read/unread status and deletion, can be automatically synchronized between the user’s email account
and the Treo 650.

— Wireless Calendar Synchronization keeps the Treo 650 smartphone’s built-in Calendar up to date remotely, allowing users to receive, accept or decline meeting requests on the go.

— Attachment Viewing lets users view Excel, Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents in original format.

— Remote Address Lookup (RAL) allows users to search their corporate directory wirelessly for email addresses without the need to download every name to the Treo 650.

— Enables centralized device management, including support for IT policies such as over-the-air device disablement and password device lock, as well as end-to-end security with Triple DES encryption.

“Providing email flexibility is one of the key features that makes the Treo 650 a tremendous asset for business customers,” said John Hartnett, senior vice president of worldwide sales and customer relations, Palm. “The addition of an enterprise strength email solution like BlackBerry Connect for movistar customers reaffirms Palm’s commitment to meet the needs of mobile professionals in Europe.”

“BlackBerry has been embraced by millions of mobile professionals around the world because it is a scalable, secure, and proven wireless solution. The Treo 650 with BlackBerry Connect delivers more choice for mobile customers by offering the combined power of the BlackBerry architecture with the feature rich Treo 650 smartphone,” said Charmaine Eggberry, vice president, EMEA at Research In Motion. “We are pleased to work with Palm and movistar to offer BlackBerry Connect on the Treo 650 smartphone to corporate customers in Spain.”

TeliaSonera has reached an agreement to increase its ownership in Xfera Moviles S.A. to 80 percent. Xfera owns a nation wide UMTS license in Spain. The initial price paid for the shares acquired is SEK 657 million (EUR 71 million). TeliaSonera will launch mobile operations and plans to roll-out a UMTS network.

TeliaSonera, the leading telecommunications company in the Nordic and Baltic region, has signed and closed an agreement with the other shareholders of Xfera Moviles S.A. to increase its shareholding in Xfera from 16.55 percent to 80 percent. ACS Telefonia Movil, S.L. which is a subsidiary of the Spanish construction company ACS, Activades de Construccion y Servicios, S.A. will remain as a partner and shareholder in Xfera. By acquiring a controlling interest in the company TeliaSonera will launch mobile operations and plans to roll-out a UMTS network, in accordance with the existing license conditions. The license conditions include the right to get GSM national roaming on reasonable conditions.

The initial price paid for the shares acquired is SEK 657 million (EUR 71 million). In addition, an earn-out model has been agreed with the selling shareholders. The total financial investment of Xfera including investments in networks, IP-service platforms, start-up costs, spectrum fees (including accrued spectrum fees from 2002) is estimated for the first five years to be less than SEK 9 billion (EUR 1 billion). In the same time frame, the operation is expected to reach a positive free cash flow.

TeliaSonera has in parallel signed an agreement with the previous shareholder of Xfera, Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (FCC), giving FCC a call option to acquire 3.4 percent of the shares in Xfera from TeliaSonera no later than June 29, 2006, at the same price as TeliaSonera has acquired the shares.

Xfera was awarded a nation wide UMTS license in Spain in March 2000 and TeliaSonera is one of the founding members. During the past years the owners have significantly curtailed Xfera’s capital and operating expenditures awaiting the necessary UMTS technology to become commercially available to launch commercial services. In June 2004, the original license conditions were amended by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce.

“We believe that there now are opportunities to make use of Xfera’s UMTS license in combination with GSM national roaming. The market conditions in Spain give room for another player. This, together with decreasing vendor prices as well as availability of good quality and reasonably priced 3G terminals, provides us with an opportunity to establish ourselves in a new market” comments Anders Igel, President and CEO of TeliaSonera AB.

The Spanish mobile market includes three established operators and a penetration of approximately 91 percent, corresponding to some 40 million mobile users of the total population of 44 million. The 3G terminal penetration is accelerating and TeliaSonera estimates that the number of handsets in the market exceeds 1.2 million. “We are committed and will employ all our knowledge and experience to introduce a new competitive player into the Spanish market”, continues Anders Igel.