July 5, 2001 – Nokia is teaming with Genie, British Telecom's mobile Internet operations, to provide wireless games for mobile customers.

The agreement calls for Genie to receive mobile games via the Nokia Mobile Entertainment Service, a Nokia-hosted solution encompassing new mobile games, game-developer tools and support and a platform for running game applications.

The Nokia Mobile Entertainment Service supports standard wireless application protocol (WAP) browsers and short message services-compatible handsets with black-and-white displays. In the future, it will also support the upcoming top-end Java-enabled mobile devices, making advanced wireless content functional even before the availability of third-generation services, the companies said.

"Ease of use is an important factor in making the mobile Internet a success in the mass market," said Genie CTO Jim Ryan. "By taking more of an end-to-end approach towards the delivery of applications and services, this new cooperation will go a long way towards optimizing the user experience and toward making the significant opportunity of the mobile Internet a reality."

The first Nokia games will be available to Genie's five million customers in the third quarter 2001. Nokia's Mobile Entertainment Service encompasses offerings from top companies such as Rage, Eidos, Activision, iomo, Kuju Entertainment, Morpheme, h2g2, Net Entertainment, Oxford Softworks, and Quiz Supplies.

"This deal is another step towards our goal of mainstream mobile Internet adoption," said Genie President Kent Thexton. "In the UK, 29 percent of all mobile users are playing games on their phone. By building on the existing popularity of mobile games and improving the functionality of the mobile phone through optimization of available services, we are providing people with a device that becomes much more than just a phone."