T-Mobile offers video messaging service based on Hantro video technology

Oulu, Finland - September 26 , 2002. Hantro, the leading provider of multimedia solutions for mobile terminals, announced today that the German mobile operator T-Mobile has licensed the Hantro Multimedia Framework based camcorder application.

Under this agreement T-Mobile, as the first operator in Europe, will provide its customers with a new innovative service enabling the creation and sending of video messages using Hantro's leading edge technology. T-Mobile's customers equipped with a Nokia 7650 are able to create video clips with the phone and share them with other mobile phone or PC users.

The Hantro Multimedia Framework is a complete system allowing fast implementation of various video applications by choosing ready-made codecs and protocols connected by a virtual backplane. The framework supports hardware and software approaches depending on the performance requirements, ranging from subQCIF streaming to CIF two-way video telephony.

"With this video messaging service, we can provide a genuine product innovation to our customers" says Mr. Martin Knauer, CEO of T-Mobile. "The key advantage of Hantro's technology is its ease of deployment and fast time to market. The camcorder application enables user-to-user video messaging without any additional network components. An additional advantage is, that thanks to the standards based implementation the application is not limited to mobile-to-mobile messaging, but the videoclips can also be viewed on any PC".

"We are extremely excited about this agreement with one of the most innovative European operators" says Mr. Eero Kaikkonen, CEO of Hantro. "This co-operation further proves the flexibility of our Multimedia Framework, enabling us to provide tailored solutions to operators, handset manufacturers and semiconductor vendors."

About Hantro
Hantro provides its customers with video solutions for handheld devices. For video coding Hantro has both hardware and software-based MPEG-4 and H.263 compatible video codecs,that are proven and already delivered to the first customers. Hantro's product portfolio also includes video applications for video capturing, playback, messaging, streaming, and telephony. The company's products are in a key role for the device and semiconductor manufacturers developing battery-operated video-capable end products like cellular phones, still cameras, PDAs, camcorders, PC cameras, and web pads. Hantro's investors are funds managed by CapMan, Startupfactory, Menire and Nexit Ventures.