Joint Innovation Lab

Vodafone Group Plc
24 April 2008


         China Mobile, SOFTBANK and Vodafone in agreement to establish          
           a Joint Innovation Lab to develop mobile internet services           

24 April 2008

China Mobile, SOFTBANK and Vodafone have agreed to establish a Joint Innovation
Lab (JIL) to promote the development of new mobile technologies, applications
and services. The three companies expect the initiative will help to accelerate
the commercial deployment of mobile internet services.

The three companies will use the JIL as a platform to develop mobile services
and drive innovation and synergy in the industry to the benefit of their
combined global customer base. The JIL will launch projects based on emerging
technologies and market demand.

The JIL will focus on the rapidly growing areas of mobile internet services,
such as mobile widgets*. Initially, the JIL plans to develop a platform for
mobile widgets to encourage the development of innovative new services that can
leverage mobile operators' unique capabilities.

This move is expected to enable different widgets and applications to run
seamlessly on different handset platforms and operating systems across different
mobile operators, while safeguarding customer security, data privacy and billing
systems. The development of a widget platform is expected to benefit both
developers and users. The JIL also welcomes the co-operation of vendors and
developers in the creation of new applications and services.

The establishment of the JIL and completion is subject to regulatory approvals
and certain customary closing conditions.

                                    - ends -                                    


* EDITOR'S NOTE: A widget is a highly functional, small, web-based application
  that gives customers access to useful services.


For media enquiries please contact:
 
China Mobile Public Relations
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

SOFTBANK Public Relations 
Tel: [phone] 
Email: [e-mail]

Vodafone Group 
Media Relations 
Tel: [phone]



About China Mobile
China Mobile is the world's largest mobile operator with more than 392 million 
subscribes (as of March 31, 2008). China Mobile has been a leading player in 
the mobile communications industry. In 10 years, China Mobile has established a
world class mobile network with over 300,000 base stations, best coverage and 
best customer services. It ranks the first in the world in terms of the network 
scale and the customer base. For more information, please visit 
http://www.chinamobile.com 


About SOFTBANK
SOFTBANK GROUP offers its customers a range of services including mobile
communications, broadband infrastructure, fixed-line telecommunications,
internet culture, e-Commerce, and others. SOFTBANK MOBILE achieved the No. 1
position in net additions for FY 2007 in the Japanese market, with a total of
18,586,200 subscribers as of March 2008. For more information, please visit
www.softbank.co.jp


About Vodafone
Vodafone is the world's leading international mobile communications group with
over 252 million proportionate customers as at 31 December 2007. Vodafone
currently has equity interests in 25 countries across five continents and a
further 41 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit
www.vodafone.com

 

 



                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange