Irish firm NewBay Software has won a contract with mobile phone operator T-Mobile International that could be worth up to €5 million, according to informed sources.
The deal for NewBay's LifeCache technology will be announced at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona today. Mobile World Congress, formerly 3GSM, is the world's biggest and most influential gathering for the mobile phone industry and runs until next Thursday.
T-Mobile is using the software to power a service called MyFaves, which has just been launched in Germany, Britain and the Czech Republic and will be rolled out to other European countries later this year. The wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom also has operations in the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Macedonia and Montenegro.
"NewBay understands the consumer and recognises the importance of service usability. Its proven experience in delivering innovative and carrier grade solutions for operators made NewBay the perfect choice for our unique MyFaves service," said Horst Rauch, vice president for Mobile Services with T-Mobile International.
NewBay's technology is deployed on the handsets of subscribers but also on T-Mobile's network. The ultimate value of the contract will depend on how many countries T-Mobile decides to roll the service out to, explained Paddy Holohan, chief executive of NewBay.
The MyFaves application can be accessed either from the subscriber's mobile phone or over the web. It enables them to create their own "mini social network" with five people of their choosing. They can then instantly call those favourite numbers or send them text and multimedia messages.
NewBay's software was also chosen to power a similar MyFaves service that was launched by T-Mobile in the US in 2006.
Mr Holohan said NewBay, which currently employs about 170 staff at offices in Dublin and California, has significant growth plans for this year.
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