Swiss wireless startups merge
MobileChannel.Network (MC.N) and uB-mobile are to merge. The new firm retains MC.N as its legal entity and will continue to use the uB-mobile trademark for the promotion of a number of existing products and services in operation worldwide.
MC.n will be led by Hans Ivanovitch, the former CEO of Sunrise, an alternative telecommunications operator in Switzerland, who has been consulting in Germany for the past few years.
Both MC.N, based in Nyon, and uB-mobile, based in Geneva, were pegged by Swiss Venture Update editor, Valerie Thompson, as two of Switzerland’s Internet Elite.
But then the wireless application protocol (WAP), on which their services relied to connect mobile phones to specially formatted Internet pages, hit a number of unforeseen speed bumps that knocked mobile data services off their fast growth trajectory.
Both struggled to find their place in the mobile market. MC.N fairly quickly moved into the SMS market.
uB-Mobile followed suit some months later. It originally wanted to offer city guides via WAP that could also exploit location based technology. Now it is an SMS platform and service center provider with an integrated billing functionality.
Both are venture capital backed startups. uB-mobile received 12 million francs from Softbank European venture fund in early 2001. Since then Softbank closed up shop and went home.
MC.N received an even larger investment amount, some 20 million francs in the previous year.
The new company will continue to try to sell its content and services to mobile network operators in Europe and Asia and Internet portals Yahoo, T-Online and Microsoft’s MSN, some of whom are already customers of MC.N.
MC.N has an exclusive agreement with MTV across Europe and Asia for music related ring tones and logos service. It also offers over the air configuration of WAP phones and technology services to content providers.
by Valerie Thompson
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