Ericsson has announced its first contract for delivery of its hosted consumer push e-mail service to Aircel, part of the Maxis Communications group.

Under the terms of the three-year managed services hosting agreement, Ericsson will have end-to-end responsibility for the consumer push e-mail service. This includes systems integration and management, as well as operation and maintenance. Integration of the service has already begun, and the commercial launch is scheduled for the second quarter of 2008.

Ericsson's consumer push e-mail service is based on SMS/MMS messaging and enables users to send and receive e-mails from POP3 e-mail accounts to their mobile phones.

Rohit Chandra, Executive Director at Aircel, said, "Keeping the subscriber engaged with value-added services is increasingly becoming a focus area for all operators. Creating and launching such innovative initiatives across the network is essential to drive mass market engagement and help capitalise first mover advantage. Ericsson is a long-standing partner and its expertise and clear understanding of our needs makes it the right choice for this project."

Mats Granryd, President of Ericsson India, said, "This deal marks a worldwide first for Ericsson, and we are proud to be working with Aircel. It also sets the stage for further hosting deployments that deliver value added services. We are confident that the launch of innovative services such as the consumer push e-mail will help Aircel maintain its leadership position in its markets."