MIDAS Research Project Turns Mobile Middleware Into Gold

Intelligent Wireless Solution Research Project Secures Top Spot in
Coveted EU Financing Program


STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/18/06 -- Appear Networks
announced today that the MIDAS (Middleware Platform for Developing and
Deploying Advanced Mobile Services) Consortium had been ranked first
out of 99 project proposals and granted EU financing to start research
on the next generation of middleware for wireless networks. The MIDAS
Consortium is composed of the SINTEF Research Institute (Norway),
Appear Networks (Sweden), Telefonica (Spain), Capgemini BV (the
Netherlands), Paris Local Transport Authority (France), 51Pegasi
(France), the University of Oslo and the Warsaw University of
Technology.


The Consortium aims to focus on challenging deployment environments,
such as distributing mobile information to visitors and employees of
large-scale sports events or providing real-time safety information to
emergency response teams in a public transport network.


Imagine a security agent sending a silent alert by simply pressing a
button on his wireless device. Instantly, the alert is geo-localized
and real-time video streams from the local surveillance cameras are
pushed onto the mobile terminals of the nearby security agents. This
state of alert also triggers an automatic self-configuration of the
network, which sets new priority rules for bandwidth management,
providing optimal quality of service for the security crew. Moreover,
punctual "field ops" applications are instantly pushed to the security
crew to support them during the intervention; for example, a simple
click on his terminal will automatically connect a security agent to
his closest colleague via voice over IP (VoIP).


Part of the fourth call of the IST Sixth Framework Program and
starting in January 2006, MIDAS is a EUR 4.9 million project focusing
on "Mobile and Wireless Systems beyond 3G" and will provide an
unprecedented platform for the design, development and deployment of
mobile applications.


Joe Gorman, project coordinator at SINTEF, said: "Traditional
approaches to mobile service creation involve a great deal of
reinvention for each new service, and there are no standard approaches
to key issues such as the need to combine infrastructure-based and
infrastructure-free communications. Even short-lived mobile services
generally require considerable customization, which makes the
provision of such services technically and economically infeasible.
MIDAS will make it possible to provide new and innovative mobile
services to large groups of people, in locations and situations where
previously this would have been impossible."


The MIDAS platform will make it commercially viable for the wider IT
industry to provide mobile services in environments with a very large
number of users over a limited period of time (for example, an
international sport event such as the Football World Cup) or in
situations where the service must be set up immediately (for example,
teams responding to an emergency in a underground transportation
network). The platform's technical architecture and middleware
building blocks will provide solutions to the numerous technical
issues involved in developing mobile services, such as gathering,
transforming and distributing context information in a suitable form.


"We are thrilled to have been selected amongst such tough
competition," commented Xavier Aubry, COO, Appear Networks. "The
mobile middleware industry is undergoing profound changes driven by
operators and large enterprises that seek to deploy value-added mobile
services. Next-generation mobile middleware platforms should enable
the rapid development of new services. With MIDAS, we will cut the
development time of services from months to weeks."


The MIDAS approach will benefit users in various ways, including
making it easier for companies to develop new mobile services with
reduced risks and lower investment levels. In turn, this will lead to
an increase in the number of services developed and their level of
functionality.


About Appear Networks: Appear Networks is a leading provider of
wireless communication platforms that enable successful enterprise
mobility solutions. The Appear IQ suite of products transforms
standard wireless data networks into multimedia channels for the
proactive delivery of personalized, real-time information,
mission-critical video and VoIP communication to mobile workers. In
highly demanding, mobile environments, Appear IQ makes technology
accessible and intuitive, leveraging existing IT investments to
maximize employee productivity and the effectiveness of customer
interactions. Appear IQ is used by leaders in the transportation,
telecommunication and public sector, including, among others,
Stockholm Subway (SL), Paris Local Transport Authority (RATP), Connex,
France Telecom and the City of Kista, Sweden. Appear Networks partners
with IT industry leaders Cisco, Capgemini, Intel and Fujitsu Siemens
Computers to deliver innovative, end-to-end, integrated WLAN
solutions. The company is privately held and headquartered in
Stockholm, Sweden. For more information, please visit us at
http://www.appearnetworks.com.


About MIDAS: The MIDAS Consortium includes SINTEF, a leading European
research institute and project coordinator; Capgemini, a global system
integrator; Telefonica, one of the world's largest telecom operators;
RATP, the Paris public transport authority; Appear Networks, a mobile
middleware specialist; 51pegasi, an IT solution provider specialized
in sports events; University of Oslo; and Warsaw University of
Technology.