Pollen count forecast of the day sent directly to your mobile phone

5 May 2000 Europolitan and Infocom sign an agreement Pollen count forecast of the day sent directly to your mobile phone It is now possible to obtain the day's pollen count forecast directly via your mobile phone, a service enabled by a collaboration agreement between Europolitan and Infocom. The PollenTele service is currently only available to Europolitan customers. Infocom mediates tailored text-message pollen count forecasts directly to mobile phones through the PollenTele SMS service. The initial regions covered by the forecasts are Stockholm, Gävle, Gothenburg and Malmö. Today, just over a million Swedes have pollen allergies. Many suffer a great deal during the summer months, but planning medication and time spent outdoors can ease the suffering. Avoiding airing or hanging laundry outside can also ease the suffering. "You cannot see, feel or smell pollen levels. Once the allergic reaction has begun the symptoms can be alleviated but it is too late to take preventative medication, which is the most effective for many. That is why it is so important for people with allergies to get up-to-date forecasts as early as possible," says Kjell Persson, Managing Director of Infocom. Receiving information updated to the day straight into their mobile telephones is therefore a great advantage. "Pollen allergy sufferers will always get the very latest forecasts about airborne pollen counts via their mobile phones - unlike in newspapers, where forecasts are always at least a day old, and instead of waiting for the right information to be reported on the radio," says Kjell Persson. PollenTele can be accessed by registering at www.pollentele.com where subscribers provide their mobile telephone number, region, the types of pollen to which they react and the levels to which they are sensitive. From then on, they receive the information they need immediately following the completion of the reports and forecasts in each region. PollenTele's forecasts are provided by the Gothenburg Botanical Analysis Group and the Stockholm Palynological laboratory, and are updated each weekday. The service will be available until 31 August. "To be able to provide our customers with the information they need, regardless of their whereabouts, is a high priority area for us. Now, our customers who suffer from pollen allergies no longer need to sit by the radio and wait for the pollen count report, they can receive the information the minute it is available, even when they are on the move," says Robert Nilsson, Vice President Marketing at Europolitan. Europolitan AB is a Swedish GSM operator that prioritises service and quality. The company's head office is in Karlskrona, Sweden. Europolitan is a leader in the field of technically advanced services for GSM 900/1800.The Europolitan Group, which also includes the stock market listed parent company Europolitan Holdings AB and sister companies, Europolitan Stores AB, Ocom AB and Doberman AB, has around 1,000 employees. For more information, please contact: Robert Nilsson, Vice President Marketing, Europolitan AB Tel +46 708 33 14 12, e-mail: robert.nilsson@europolitan.se Lotta Hansson, Press Relations, Europolitan AB Tel: +46 708 33 13 51, e-mail: lotta.hansson@europolitan.se Kjell Persson, Managing Director, Infocom Europe AB, Tel: +46 46 280 77 80, e-mail: kjell@cwc.se ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/05/05/20000505BIT00500/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/05/05/20000505BIT00500/bit0002.pdf