Digital Bridges CEO and founder, Dr Kevin Bradshaw, will join the board and Phil Cooke, Chief Technology Officer will head a new Platforms and Architectures committee, dedicated to supporting the creation of standards within the rapidly growing area of Mobile Entertainment development and distribution technology.

Founded in February 2001, the Mobile Entertainment Forum is an open, non-exclusive organisation created with the aim to further the growth and prosperity of the mobile entertainment industry. MEF aids this through facilitation of the development of technological and commercial standards, and by serving as a focal point and promotional vehicle for Forum members.

Digital Bridges remains committed to the creation and use of standards for the development and distribution of mobile entertainment, such as the Universal Mobile Games Platform initiative, recently announced by Motorola, Ericsson and Siemens. Digital Bridges, as leaders of the MEFs new committee, will represent the MEF in any future activities such as the UMGP.

The wireless Internet is one of the fastest growing mediums ever created. Recent market research by DataMonitor shows that by 2005 there will be 198 million mobile phone users playing wireless games in Western Europe and the USA. This represents a total market value of over $6bn within the next four years in these two markets alone.

A recent study of a top European portal showed that gaming was by far the most popular application, with over 16% of the total traffic through the portal being generated by people playing games.

Dr Kevin Bradshaw, CEO and founder of Digital Bridges, said, The next 12 months will see a crucial evolution of the mobile entertainment market. The large number of potential platform development companies will consolidate down to the few leading players we see today, and partnerships will be struck with the heavyweight mobile infrastructure vendors who to date have not released products in this space. It is crucial that the MEF is seen as a unified voice and that the efforts of the UMGP and MEF are aligned. This is the intention behind Digital Bridges joining each activity. We believe we have the leading platform today in UNITY, but we do not intend to enforce standards by commercial muscle we seek to contribute and enhance all standards to the benefit of the industry as a whole.

Thomas Zilliacus, chairman of the MEF, said, We are delighted to welcome Digital Bridges to the Mobile Entertainment Forum. We have seen that mobile entertainment is already driving usage on the wireless Internet and in the last six months the market has grown enormously. The industry as a whole is now ready to make the transition into the mainstream of wireless services. The MEF will ensure that all of its members benefit from this evolution.

The first output of the new committee will be a reference model for mobile entertainment delivery platforms, to be released at the end of September 2001. Companies wishing to join with Digital Bridges and other existing MEF members such as Cash-U, Comverse and Picofun in this effort please contact Rimma Perelmuter, General Secretary, MEF as below.
ENDS.

Notes To Editors:
Mobile Entertainment Forum
Founded in February 2001 by the leading forces in the fields of entertainment and mobile value-added services, the Mobile Entertainment Forum is an open, non-exclusive organisation created with the aim to further the growth and prosperity of the mobile entertainment industry. MEF facilitates this through the development of technological and commercial standards, and by serving as a focal point and promotional vehicle for members of the Forum.
Members directly contribute to the success of the mobile entertainment industry by participating in professional committees and tracks. Tracks include Published Content, Infotainment, Games, Gambling, and Community. Professional Committees include Technology, Commercial Standards and Quality Processes, and Mobile Marketing and Advertising.
Board members of MEF are Booz,-Allen & Hamilton, Cash-U, Comverse, Digital Bridges, mBlox, OpenMobile, and Picofun.

Digital Bridges Ltd.
Digital Bridges was created in 1998; its goal is to be the world leader in building a network of entertainment channels for mobile devices on the wireless Internet. The company brings three major assets to the new medium of wireless communications: delivery technology, distribution and publishing capabilities and content design experience. Digital Bridges is the creator of UNITY, the universal wireless entertainment technology solution. Since its launch in the second quarter of 2000, Digital Bridges initial Wireless Entertainment channel, Wirelessgames has been a runaway success. The channel is currently carried live on twenty mobile network operators around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.digitalbridges.com.

Contacts:
Digital Bridges Ltd.
Brian Baglow,
Global Communications Manager,
T: +44 (0) 1383-723234
M: +44 (0) 7747-792247
E: [email protected]

MEF
Rimma Perelmuter,
General Secretary,
T: +44 (0) 208-432-1266
M: +44 (0) 794-024-6016
E: [email protected]