BURLINGTON, Mass. and READING, U.K. -- Airwide Solutions, the leading provider of next-generation mobile messaging infrastructure and applications, today announced that the company has acquired First Hop of Espoo, Finland. First Hop is a pioneer in mobile service control and gateway technologies that enable operators to move at the speed of the market by rapidly implementing new mobile services, business models and targeted content and campaigns. With more than 120 mobile operators served by the combined company, Airwide further establishes itself as a dominant player in the next-generation mobile messaging industry and firmly secures the number one position in the market for mobile service control and messaging gateways.

By acquiring First Hop, Airwide extends the flexibility of its tiered architecture for operators by adding the industry’s most advanced multi-channel gateway as another step in enabling operators to add ‘best-of-breed,’ open components to their networks. Airwide will also incorporate First Hop’s powerful mobile service control capabilities into the next-generation Fusion architecture, expanding it beyond messaging with solutions for wireless internet browsing. First Hop’s products, technology and team will be an integral part of Airwide’s mission to provide the most advanced and effective solutions for driving mobile messaging usage and revenues and enabling operators to leverage multiple delivery channels and next-generation infrastructure in new and more powerful ways. Together, the companies are uniquely positioned to address the emerging industry requirements for Mobile Messaging 2.0, which emphasizes open, interoperable systems and is guiding the evolution of the mobile messaging industry.

By adding mobile service control -- which enables functionality like context, personalization and profiling -- to its industry-leading Fusion tiered architecture, Airwide will enable operators to rapidly launch more services and to build a dynamic and broad service offering that will drive subscriber messaging usage and ultimately revenues. Also, by expanding further into additional delivery channels like the HTTP and WAP based mobile internet, Airwide creates a foundation for bridging internet services and mobile networks that will let operators future proof their business models and revenue streams and create new and unique mobile services.

“The mobile messaging industry is poised for great change, and Airwide today is making a solid statement that we are going to be the company that drives the next stage of the market,” said Kevin A. Wood, CEO of Airwide. “Operators continue to struggle with driving new revenue from mobile messaging services, and they are grappling with how to develop new business models such as ad-sponsored services. Combining First Hop’s service control strengths and multi-channel delivery strategy with Airwide’s next generation mobile messaging infrastructure we address these issues head-on, and our expanded vision will help us to meet operator needs now and in the future.”

Airwide Solutions