Brand Communications Announces Major New Contract from Transco

Transco selects Brand Communications 'Apollo Anywhere' to deliver GPRS Mobile Workforce Solution

HUNTINGDON - 13th January 2003

UK Based, Mobile Data and Remote Access Specialists, Brand Communications Limited, today has announced that Transco, Britain's leading gas transporter, have selected and installed the Brand 'Apollo Anywhere' solution for their GPRS Private Mobile Radio (PMR) Replacement project.

Transco has successfully deployed Brand's 'Apollo Anywhere' solution into its corporate network, which will provide over 3,500 remote employees with fast and reliable access to mission critical applications such as 'dynamic job despatch' and in the near future, access to other back office applications using GPRS.

Transco's Mobile Workforce plays an essential role in the running of the business, attending to gas emergencies and critical situations on a daily basis. Transco needed a solution which would allow them to use 'dynamic job despatch' to their regular and emergency field-based workers and other mission critical applications.

In 2001, Transco took the decision to replace their existing PMR with GPRS. This decision was taken for many different reasons. GPRS could offer Transco a nearly 'always on' solution, so they could reach their engineers with information at any point throughout the day. With GPRS they had greater flexibility, as they could communicate with engineers in any location and not be restricted as they were with the PMR system.

With the adoption of GPRS however, Transco also encountered many obstacles and enlisted Brand Communications to help solve them. Brand's 'Apollo Anywhere' software allows Transco's mobile users to maintain true 'always-on' reliable access to applications in real time. Brand makes this possible by integrating the LAN environment transparently with wireless WAN environments, enabling seamless roaming across GPRS and GSM (switched circuit) networks.

Brand offered Transco all the benefits of business access computing on multiple wireless network standards - with the added benefit of high compression levels, fast packet loss recovery and dynamic switching between 802.11b, GPRS or other bearer networks depending on availability during the same transaction.

Another key factor for consideration by Transco was security. With Brand's enhanced security techniques, it ensured that only valid users could establish sessions and access applications throughout the day.

Brand's 'Apollo Anywhere' solution makes mobile data a reality for business critical data applications via Session Management. It removes the uncertainty of using the wireless network to transfer vital information and ensures compatibility with almost all data devices and networks resulting in a future-proofed investment for Transco, allowing access to all IP-based applications from the office, the home or in the field.

Martin Kendrick, Brand Communications Managing Director, commented, " Transco recognised that Brand Communications was the missing link in their communications solution. Brand brought reliability and ease of use to the whole of Transco's mobile data solution. With the deployment of GPRS, security and interoperability with legacy applications can cause some major headaches to business users. The Mobile VPN, an integral component in the Apollo 'Anywhere' solution, removed all these obstacles for Transco.

"Transco's mobile users were increasingly needing to access critical data and services in a variety of different locations and environments" said Martin Evans, PMR Replacement Delivery Manager at Transco. "We selected Brand Communications because we felt their technology offered us so many different capabilities and helped our engineers to obtain a reliable, seamless and usable mobile connection at anytime in anyplace."

About Brand Communications

Brand Communications is a global leader in mobile data and remote access solutions. We develop, manufacture and market a range of leading mobile, remote office and site-to-site access solutions for all environments including ISDN, PSTN, Fixed Lines, Satellite, GSM and GPRS.

Apollo has helped to significantly grow the number of active GSM data users worldwide and has delivered tangible paybacks to many networks and their users. Apollo continues to deliver such rich benefits to HSCSD, GPRS and 3G networks. More information can be found at http://www.brandcomms.com

About Transco

Transco, part of the National Grid Transco Plc, is responsible for ensuring that gas is delivered to more than 20 million homes and businesses around Britain safely and efficiently. An element in achieving this is the work of its field service team that attends gas emergencies, and carries out installations and essential maintenance.
More information can be found at http://www.transco.uk.com

For further information on Brand Communications Ltd, contact:

Miss Katie Sarah Ruff
Brand Communications Limited
Trinity House
Ermine Business Park
Huntingdon
Cambs, PE29 6XY

Tel: +44 (0)1480 442100   Email: katier@brandcomms.com
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