Partner Communications (Nasdaq: PTNR)
today announced the launch of a range of advanced location based services with US based InirU, that will allow Orange customers to benefit from person-to- person information and m-commerce services based upon the relative proximity of a user to his/her friends and/or to a point-of-sale that is of special interest to the user.
InirU, a location-based technology and service provider with its R&D center based in Israel, has developed a range of location - based services and technologies. The monitoring of the development and integration of the service in Partner, as well as the participation in the financial investment were performed under the umbrella of Partner Future Communications 2000, Partner`s fully owned subsidiary. Among the services that are offered to Orange subscribers are m-commerce services, providing customers subscribing to the service with cellular coupons to commercial services available in their immediate vicinity. Leumi - Card, an Israeli credit card company, will market the commercial services to participating businesses. Additional services include community services, enabling users to define a community (such as friends) and to be notified of the presence of a member of the community in a predetermined and flexible proximity to the user.
Partner CEO Amikam Cohen said, “The launch of advanced location - based services with InirU is another milestone in Partner's strategy to assure that Orange subscribers in Israel will benefit from the cutting edge technologies and applications in the wirefree environment, while simultaneously cultivating the growth opportunities for Partner by developing applications, which can be implemented outside the boundaries of the state of Israel.”
InirU CEO Shlomo Rodav commented, “The launch of the InirU services with Partner is an important step in realizing InirU`s mission. We believe that this full mass-market commercial launch brings us closer to achieving our goal of becoming one of the world's leading service providers in wireless location-based services and technologies. These services provide the user with a unique experience, combined with push and pull information, fun and m-commerce activities, while maintaining the highest level of subscriber privacy.”
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 26 June, 2001