Mass market messaging services provider Synchronica has signed a new framework agreement with a pan-African operator for distribution of the group’s Mobile Gateway tool, bringing its tally of carriers spanning the continent to 10 in total, writes Martin Conway.
Under the terms of the agreement, the African operator, whose identity Synchronica declined to divulge, has confirmed purchase orders worth $752,000, and is expected to launch Mobile Gateway across all subsidiaries in the immediate future. Mobile Gateway provides a multi-protocol gateway, combining IMAP, SyncML, ActiveSync, email to MMS and email to SMS, thereby enabling push email and synchronisation to any mobile phone, without the need for the downloading of additional clients. 
Synchronica says it expects a successful rollout of Mobile Gateway in Africa, encouraged by the findings of an Ernst & Young-produced study of mobile trends within the continent. Entitled Africa Connected – A Telecommunications Growth Story, the study predicts that mobile penetration across Africa is expected to increase from 37 per cent to 61 per cent, between now and 2012, the rise partly fuelled by user frustration with the continent’s substandard terrestrial communications infrastructures. Synchronica claims that the provision of such instant messaging capabilities to mobile devices could witness a significant shift from less reliable internet café connectivity.
