Sigmaroc. Regulatory News (SRC)

Messaging International Plc / Market: AIM / Epic: MES / Sector: Technology

Messaging International Plc ('the Company')

TeleMessage Ltd receives BIRD funding for Secure RCS Messaging

Messaging International Plc, the AIM traded company and provider of converged messaging products and services, is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, TeleMessage Ltd ('TeleMessage'), has received from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development ('BIRD') Foundation conditional funding for a joint R&D project with a major US wireless network operator for "Secure RCS Messaging". The BIRD Foundation will provide grant funding up to $900K towards the project, split 70-30 (TeleMessage - operator), with the project due to be completed in late 2015.

The BIRD Foundation promotes collaboration between Israeli and American companies in various technological fields for the purpose of joint product development.

Projects submitted to the BIRD Foundation are thoroughly reviewed by evaluators appointed by the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) and by evaluators appointed by the Chief Scientist's Office of the Israeli Ministry of Economy. This project is one of 889 projects which the BIRD Foundation has approved for funding during its 37 year history. To date, BIRD's total investment in these projects has been over $308 million, helping to generate direct and indirect sales of more than $10 billion. The BIRD Foundation supports projects without receiving any rights in the participating companies or in the project itself. The financial assistance is repaid as royalties from sales. The BIRD Foundation provides support of up to 50% of a project's budget, beginning with R&D and ending with the initial stages of sales and marketing. The BIRD Foundation shares the risk and does not demand that the investment be repaid if the project fails to reach the sales stage.

The RCS (Rich Communication Services) program is a global initiative to deploy inter-operator services within an industry ecosystem. Created by the GSM Association (GSMA), RCS are designed to offer richer yet simpler communication services supported by a strong ecosystem and a variety of architecture implementation options. RCS is an upgrade that marks the transition of messaging and voice capabilities from circuit switching technology to an all-IP world. It has the potential to combine voice and SMS with instant messaging or chat, live video sharing and file transfer across all devices and networks.

RCS was built for consumers and does not address the enterprise security requirements of many business customers. Some of the requirements included in this project are:

• End-to-End security

• Message encryption

• Secure authorization

• Security layers (time limited, PIN, limit forwarding, remote wipe, archiving, perfect forward secrecy)

• Enterprise management, policy nor archiving

• Protection on end-points (phone/network)

• Secure fallback to SMS/MMS

Messaging International CEO Guy Levit said, "We are excited to continue to partner with one of the leading Telecom companies in the world. It is also our pleasure to work with the BIRD Foundation, proving again our investment in technology is at the forefront. Even better is the "Secure RCS Messaging" as it fits exactly into our roadmap plans of "Mobile Messaging for Enterprises" as described in our final results published earlier this month."

* * ENDS * *

For further information visit www.telemessage.com or contact:

Notes to Editors

About Messaging International Plc

Messaging International Plc joined AIM in August 2005. Its 100% owned subsidiary, TeleMessage Ltd (www.telemessage.com), delivers smart and secure messaging seamlessly over any communication device. Designed specifically for mobile operators and enterprises, the enterprise and VAS consumer solutions intelligently and seamlessly handle text, voice, data, and multimedia messages as well as IP messaging via Smartphone push notifications or RCS over mobiles, tablets, the web, Office, APIs and IT infrastructure. The Company has a number of contracts with major blue chip companies including Sprint, one of the largest wireless providers in the US, Rogers Wireless, the largest wireless provider in Canada, and many more.