(EN) Bipper’s mobile safety solution launched today

Mobile operator Tele2 first in the world to offer unique mobile subscription service for children

(Oslo, September 29, 2010) Norwegian parents, as the first in the world, will get access to Tele2 Bipper – a complete and safe mobile subscription designed for young mobile users. Bipper is an award winning Norwegian invention that allows parents to manage who their children are communicating with and when and how much the phone is being used. It also includes a safety alarm. Tele2 Bipper is recommended by KidsandMedia.

- Tele2 wants to provide a safe mobile environment both for adults and children, and Bipper allows us to be the first mobile operator globally to offer a complete safety solution. Nine out of ten children own a mobile phone and many parents want a service that gives them the ability to set limitations for the youngest users. Tele2 Bipper makes this possible, says Tele2’s CEO Haakon Dyrnes.

Tele2 Bipper is a unique product for families with young children and there is no similar solution on the market today. Bipper provides parents with increased security by letting them set limitations for use, decide who the children can communicate with and, if needed, determine where the mobile phone is located.  The settings are easily administered from a user-friendly web portal (http://mybipper.com), where parents, among other things, have the ability to create contacts for their children, and set time and usage limits based on how independent the child is.

In addition, parents can create an alarm list with up to five contacts that always can be contacted. If the alarm is activated, the contacts are called sequentially based on order in the contact list until someone answers the phone. All of the contacts on the alarm list will also receive a text message with a link showing the mobile phone’s last identified location.

- Knowing that a parent or the child always can be reached provides a level of safety and security for the entire family. At the same time, it is important to shield the youngest users from unwanted attention and solicitation from people and certain services. At least until they are old enough to comprehend the consequences and are able to make their own decisions, says Bipper Founder and CEO, Silje Vallestad.

Vallestad, a mother of three, got the idea for Bipper when her oldest child started school and she learned that children as young as 6 years old had their own mobile phones. Motivated by wanting children to be ”safe while mobile” she founded Bipper in 2007. It was followed by several tough years trying to learn an industry she had no experience from, putting together a team of industry experts, secure funding and finally develop an innovative and safe mobile safety solution for parents and children. Today, with the launch of Tele2 Bipper, her vision has become reality.

- Our ambition is for Bipper to become a leading supplier of mobile safety solutions for children's mobile phones. We are very proud that Bipper has been launched and the partnership with Tele2 has been extremely important for us. Feedback received from test families gives us confidence that Norwegian families want increased security in regards to their children’s ”mobile lives”, Vallestad says.

Bipper is also recommended by KidsandMedia, an organization that provides advice about exactly that, kids and media.

- This concept makes children's mobile phone use safer and parenting easier. The telecom industry should welcome this kind of companies, says Øystein Samnøen, Managing Director of KidsandMedia.

Bipper has already won several prestigious international awards for their innovative safety solution. Among these are Best Start-Up 2010 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world’s largest mobile event, and The SIMagine ‘Silver and the Samsung Award’ for best Sim-based application (among 103 entries from 35 countries) at the annual SIMagine conference in Rome.

Norway is the first country where the service is made available, but Bipper is getting ready to launch in additional markets. The exclusive partnership with Tele2 provides them with the sole rights to sell and market Bipper in Norway for a specified period of time.

If you want to learn more about Tele2 Bipper please visit www.tele2.no/bipper