SONERA AND FINNAIR COOPERATE ON DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS TRAVEL SERVICES

Sonera Corporation and Finnair have agreed to start developing wireless travel services, such as booking and paying for air tickets as well as taking care of check-in by a mobile communicator. At a later stage, the services, which are targeted at the customers of the oneworld alliance, will be extended to cover the whole world.

The services to be developed make it possible for customers to check-in and book seats with the help of their mobile phones. Furthermore, the Zed Travel(tm) booking service includes flight schedules, price inquiries, as well as flight booking, changing and cancellation. Both travel booking and check-in services can be operated with WAP mobile phones.

In addition, Sonera has made an agreement with Finnair on providing the Zed Travel(tm) flight-tracking service to Finnair's customers. The flight-tracking service sends real-time information on, among others, the time of departure of the tracked flight as an SMS text message to the customer's mobile phone. The service can be activated to the subscriptions of all operators. The flight-tracking service covers all Finnair flights worldwide as well as follow-up of all departing and arriving flights at the

Helsinki-Vantaa airport. In the future, the Zed Travel(tm) flight-tracking service will be extended internationally, when more and more airports join it.

"The Zed Travel(tm) services make traveling easier, since they enable wireless flow of information as well as transactions regardless of time and place," states Minna Lindroos, Director of Product Development at Sonera.

She continues, "From the traveler's perspective, the Zed Travel(tm) services increase convenience by reducing uncertainty and queuing at the airport.

And, the services provide the airline companies and airports with a cost-efficient way to improve their customer service and make their customer management more effective. For Sonera, the Zed Travel(tm) services constitute a clear indication of how the travel industry and mobile communications are integrating with one another."

"From the very beginning, the Sonera Zed Travel(tm) concept pleased us, and together we can, in the future, offer frequent travelers a myriad of new wireless travel-related services," explains Tom Källström, Departmental Manager of Finnair's Commercial Automation. In early summer, Finnair became the first airline company to offer its regular customers wireless LAN connection at the new Gold, Silver, and domestic lounge of the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Sonera implemented the LAN network solution and is responsible for the functioning of the network.

Zed Travel(tm) (https://www.sonera.com/zedtravel) is a mobile system independent service with scalable capacity. Zed Travel(tm) has been designed to support the WAP (Wireless Application Service) standard and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) technology. In addition to mobile phones, the service can also be used with other wireless terminals, such as palmtop computers provided with the PalmPilot or EPOC operating system. One of the most important international distribution channels of the Zed Travel(tm) services is the mobile portal Zed.