T.A. Telecom announces Mobile Services Agreement with UK-based Shazam Entertainment

Cairo, 29 October 2008 - T.A .Telecom, the leading wireless service provider, based in Cairo, Egypt, today announced it has signed a mobile services agreement with Shazam, the world-leading mobile to web music services provider. The service will be available in the MENA region, including Egypt, KSA, UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. Due to the design and simplicity of the service, users will also be able to access the service from anywhere within the region using an international number.

The agreement will see Shazam Music Discovery made available to all T.A. Telecom customers, enabling users to discover and purchase new tracks through mobile music recognition at the moment they are heard and to subsequently manage their discoveries and engage with like-minded users.

The enhanced proposition offers the ability for users to discover and purchase multiple formats of music including ringtones, full track downloads and CDs, all through their mobile phone. This heralds the arrival of an integrated transaction-based music gateway, which gives consumers a new freedom and independence in the way music is enjoyed.

"Our foray into the music recognition segment will reinforce our position in the telecom sector, and will enable us to differentiate our service portfolio for our customers. We are constantly offering exclusive services that distinctively target the needs of our customers as they continue to evolve themselves," said Amr Shady, CEO of T.A. Telecom.

Andrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam commented: "The MENA territories are culturally diverse and display significant levels of usage of value added services in the wireless sector. The Shazam Music Discovery service adds significant value in this market, and we are delighted to be working with T.A. Telecom as a trusted partner to successfully launch Shazam services across such a large region".

Shazam works by end-users holding their phone to the music for 5 to 10 seconds while it identifies the track using a process based on unique 'fingerprints' and immediately sends the user an SMS with the name of the artist and song title. Having received the music recognition result, users can then choose to buy associated products (ringtones, full track music, wallpapers etc), find out more about the track or artist, or engage with like-minded fans. To use Shazam's music recognition service, customers do not need any additional hardware or software for their mobile phone, and no user registration is required.

Fulfilling genuine user demand, Shazam's Music Discovery service is recognized as a real value added service for mobile by consumers and partners, and the integrated music services suite delivers additional enterprise value prompting higher levels of repeat usage positively impacting ARPU.