ESPOO, Finland and HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam -- Global mobility leader Nokia (NYSE: NOK - News) and Vietnam Multimedia Corporation (VTC) today announced a jointly-inked deal to launch commercial mobile broadcast TV services based on Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) technology in two key Vietnamese cities by end-2006.

The agreement, Nokia's first commercial mobile TV service rollout in the Asia Pacific region, is also among the first of Nokia's commercial rollouts globally. Nokia is currently spearheading several trials in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America countries.

VTC, Vietnam's leading national broadcaster and operator in digital broadcasting, will make available its mobile PayTV services to consumer subscribers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City by end-2006. Consumers in both cities will be able to enjoy seven digital TV channels as well as a video-on-demand service from a catalog of selected titles offered by VTC. The service is available on Nokia's Nseries DVB-H enabled multimedia devices, delivered by the Nokia N92 which will make its debut in Vietnam for this purpose.

Le Doan Quan, Director, VTC mobile TV company said: "The open technology platform solution provided by Nokia resonates with VTC's vision of increasing choice and participation for consumers and other technology providers. Nokia implementation uses the OMA DRM approach for services and content delivery protection thus enabling many additional possibilities such as delivery of ringtones, logos, music, videoclips, games and large file applications, in addition to the ordinary TV programmes. This equips VTC with a cost-effective and future-proof platform for driving the development of the vibrant multimedia ecosystem in Vietnam."

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK)