Cingular Wireless and LANA Introduce VBlast

[October 26, 2004]

Cingular Wireless and LANA Introduce VBlast

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- At CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment 2004 today, Cingular Wireless announced it has teamed with Lagardere Active North America (LANA), a leading global provider of ringtones, wallpapers and voice services, to offer VBlast(TM), a unique voice greetings service. Launched exclusively on Cingular phones, VBlast allows Cingular customers to send pre-recorded celebrity wake-up calls, birthday greetings and many more entertaining messages to any wireless or wireline phone in the country.

"Voice tones continue to be one of the favorites among our ringtone offerings, particularly with our young customers," said Jim Ryan, vice president of data product management and business marketing for Cingular Wireless. "We are pleased to work with LANA to give our wireless customers a humorous and creative means to connect with friends and family. Cingular customers will enjoy ordering and sending fun, personalized mobile voice entertainment."
"The market is ripe for LANA and Cingular to work together to provide content-rich revenue-generating applications that will enhance the way subscribers communicate," said Julien Mitelberg, CEO & President, Lagardere Active North America. "The unique experience and capabilities provided by our VBlast technologies will allow Cingular to leverage their ringtone successes."
From a rocking Fred Flintstone birthday greeting to a Dr. Phil impersonator giving a no-nonsense wake up call, VBlast has a greeting suitable for just about every taste and for almost any special -- or not so special -- occasion. For example, a Cingular customer purchases a VBlast right from their Cingular phone in which Bugs Bunny calls their friend -- whether that friend is at home, at work or on the road. When the friend answers the phone, she or he is greeted with a pre-recorded loony rendition of Happy Birthday: "Are you ready gang? Ok then! Hicka hacka firecracker, sis boom ba! Happy birthday, happy birthday, RA RA RA!"
Cingular makes it easy for customers to use the new VBlast application to order the perfect message right from their handset. VBlast is available through Cingular Wireless' subscriber handsets for $2.99 per blast and the charge will be added to their Cingular phone bill. Customers need a MEdia Net (wireless Internet)-enabled handset and Cingular Wireless service to make Vblast purchases through the wireless application.
About Cingular Wireless
Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth , serves more than 25 million voice and data customers across the United States. A leader in mobile voice and data communications, Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover(SM), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Cingular is the largest provider of GSM services in the United States, and has a 100 percent digital GSM/GPRS footprint across its service area. It also launched the world's first commercial deployment of wireless services using Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology. Cingular also provides corporate e-mail and other advanced data services through its GPRS, EDGE and Mobitex packet data networks. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com/ . Get Cingular Wireless press releases e-mailed to you automatically. Sign up at http://www.cingular.com/newsroom .
About Lagardere Active North America (LANA) and VBlast(TM)
VBlast(TM) is a brand of Lagardere Active North America (LANA), the U.S. division of Lagardere Active Broadband, the new media subsidiary of Lagardere SCA and a leading European distributor of premium mobile content. LANA, which launched operations in January 2004 creates branded content for cellular phone subscribers. In collaboration with sister company Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., a leading special interest magazine publisher, LANA has launched Car and Driver Mobile, ELLE Mobile and American Photo Mobile based on Hachette's successful brands. Recently, LANA launched the very first ring tone hip-hop label (Put Some Bling in Your Ring!) under its BLINGTONE(TM) brand.
Cingular Wireless

CONTACT: Kelleigh Scott of Cingular Wireless, +1-404-236-6321, orkelleigh.scott@cingular.com ; or Jodi Sacks of Ketchum, +1-404-550-5859, orjodi.sacks@ketchum.com , for Cingular Wireless; or George Rogerson of LANA,+1-661-296-6991, or 1-661-713-7777, or grogerson@hfmus.net

Web site: http://www.cingular.com/http://www.cingular.com/newsroomhttp://www.wirelessit.co
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