3 Italy signs deal with IONA

IONA Technologies has announced that 3 Italy, the mobile video company of Hutchinson Whampoa Group Ltd (HWL), has selected IONA’s Artix to help achieve interoperability between the wireless providers’ multiple-packaged and home-grown middleware systems.

3 Italy was the first provider to launch UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) services in Europe and its goal is to become the leading provider of UMTS services in the Italian market.

Critical to 3’s strategy is its ability to introduce new 3G services while optimising network performance and maintaining a high quality of service.

3 selected Artix for its high performance, small footprint and integrated security capabilities.

These qualities allow 3 to integrate disparate systems with its existing IT infrastructure, while satisfying high-volume transaction requirements and maintaining the highest quality of service.

“By using a platform-independent and standards-based integration solution like Artix, we plan to reduce the overall complexity of our IT infrastructure while at the same time leveraging it to build and deploy new business applications,” said 3 Italy’s CTO Georges Perez.

In mid-morning trading, IONA was up 10c, or 3.64%, at €2.85 on the ISEQ, at odds with the poor performance of the rest of the Irish index.