Europe : C3 of Cambridge, UK, is to launch a new, complete call-handling platform to operate a value-added mobile services business, at the 3GSM show in Cannes.

Inset is John Wood, C3's sales and marketing director, who will be leading the launch.

The new platform has been developed to support ringtones, Interactive TV chat-and-date services, sports scores, quizzes games and any other premium information.

C3`s IVR (Interactive Voice Response) provides the link between the calls and the delivery and billing functions.

The new platform will work in any mobile environment: GSM, 2.5G or 3G.

It supports calls to the new Voice and Text Short Codes, which are expected to accelerate the volume of premium-rate mobile traffic as broadcasters and advertisers change over to these shorter, memorable phone numbers.

It is aimed at mobile operators, mobile content providers or call aggregators - or any other party that wants to build a new business in consumer mobile data services.

The system can be deployed rapidly so that operators can bring their new mobile data services to the market without any delay or development. It is easily scalable to support the rapid growth expected in this area of mobile services.

About C3

C3 is Europe`s leading supplier of standards-based communications platforms for call handling and e-business. The company has installed over 250,000 lines of communications technology for corporates and service providers since 1990. Applications include: prepaid telephony, emergency call out, IVR, speech recognition, contact centre, virtual call centre, voicemail, automated solutions, SMS, IdTV, VoIP and Status Messaging. C3 is based in Cambridge UK and is a member of NOC. C3 Ltd works with technology partners Aculab and Dialogic.