Aspiro invited to address top European Ministerial Conference in Portugal

Aspiro invited to address top European Ministerial Conference in Portugal Aspiro was invited to speak at the high level European Ministerial Conference on the Information and Knowledge Society held in Lisbon on th April 10-11 . During a special session, "Citizens with Special Needs", Erik Snabb, vice president of Aspiro Mobile TextPhone, presented and gave a live demonstration of the TextPhone, a text telephony service that offers the deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired the possibility to communicate via real-time text calls using mobile devices. Also invited to address the special closed session were Motorola, Microsoft and IBM as well as other important organizations and influential governmental bodies. "The conference shows quite clearly how important the European Commission views the matter of people with disabilities being afforded the opportunity to join in the mobile telephony revolution and the crucial role we are playing to achieve that," says Snabb. The full results of the session are to be compiled in a report and submitted to a meeting of the European Commission in June. Aspiro Mobile TextPhone was first launched in Sweden in May 1998 through the Swedish operator Europolitan. Later that year it won the award Best Service of the Year for Disabled People by the Swedish Ombudsman for Disabled People. Nokia also appointed Aspiro Mobile TextPhone Best Developer of the Year. In September 1999 the service was extended to include Europe, America and Asia. "In all that time the service has had no downtime. Proof that it fulfills the highest standards of telephony," said Snabb in his presentation. The service attracted a great deal of interest, especially since it is not dependent on any one of the many different text telephony protocols used by European and global GSM network operators. "This means that with the right cooperation and perhaps political incentive there is no reason why Aspiro Mobile TextPhone Service could not be installed across Europe within a period some 6-10 months," says Snabb. For more information, please contact: Erik Snabb, vice president, Aspiro Mobile TextPhone, tel: +46 708 294571 or e-mail: erik.snabb@telesta.com About Aspiro Aspiro provides mobile applications and services promoting Life in Motion using cutting-edge knowledge and technologies. Aspiro offers operators, content providers and mobile organizations a wide range of solutions, from pre-packaged portal services to industry specific solutions. Telesta, Inc. developed the Mobile Textphone Service, and was acquired by Aspiro earlier this year. The U.S. headquarters for the business area Mobile Textphone is based in Andover, MA. Founded in 1998, Aspiro is today a world leader within Mobile Internet. The Scandinavian-based company has over 130 employees and offices in Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg and USA. Aspiro's business concept, organization and operations are based on many years of experience gained in the mobile telecommunications and IT industries. For further information about the Mobile TextPhone Service, please visit www.mobile.textphone.com or www.telesta.com. For further information about Aspiro, please visit www.aspiro.com ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/04/13/20000413BIT01280/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/04/13/20000413BIT01280/bit0002.pdf