iO Global Limited, the leading worldwide provider of integrated mobile content delivery solutions, today announced the appointment of Martin Knestrick as CEO to lead the company in its next phase of development and growth. Martin brings with him more than 20 years’ experience in international management within high-tech industries on several continents. His most recent role was as CEO of Vidus Limited, the field service automation solution specialist, which was sold to the NASDAQ-listed @Road in February 2005.

Martin’s focus at iO will be to drive the company through its next stage of development. He plans to strengthen and develop relationships with content developers, network operators and service partners, and to assure that the company’s growth is truly global.

Commenting on his appointment, Martin said: “I’ve had the pleasure of working with several technologies and management teams, and this one is something special. iO has developed a very different kind of platform that enables the mobile phone to emerge as a tool for browsing, purchasing and consuming content and places it at the heart of the movement towards converged networks and integrated user experiences. The company also has an extensive portfolio of content from world recognized brands, and an architecture which enables peer-to-peer sharing and distribution of content of many types, from both professional and community sources. iO is all about enabling the coming waves of richer and more complex products and end user propositions, and the different kind of infrastructure required to make these real. I’m very excited to be a part of helping our management team and our partners create value for operators, content providers and the end user, and thereby make this company a big success.”

Brendan Dowling, Founder iO Global Limited, added: “We are very fortunate to have someone with Martin’s knowledge and experience join us. Martin has a wealth of experience in high-tech management and a proven track record in developing organisations through organic growth, acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures and licensing agreements.”

The managed service provided by iO Global is unique in addressing the management of the full supply chain for digital content, from acquisition, packaging and pricing through to delivery and real-time billing to the end user. The service is fully automated to facilitate the marketing and delivery of dynamic content services such as TV and Radio news (as well as newspapers, real music, pictures, ring tones, wallpapers and 3D games) to mobile devices and PCs. Based on a revenue sharing model, the iO managed service allows rich content to be delivered quickly and easily with minimal capital expenditure and up-front costs.

The iO service is marketed internationally by BT Global Services, the BT line of business providing networked IT services to meet the needs of multi-site organisations globally. BT Global Services operates in more than 130 countries and also offers international carrier services.

ENDS

Notes to Editors
About iO:

iO Global Limited is a venture backed company, formed to develop and market complete turnkey solutions to support the delivery of mobile content. Early operations have been jointly funded by BT, one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services, and New Venture Partners LLC, the leading corporate venturing firm worldwide. The iO platform enables fast sourcing, delivery and distribution of dynamic digital content in any format, to any device, in any location, over any network.

The platform is unique in several important respects: in its simultaneous simplification and automation of the complex processes required to manage, transact, and deliver digital content, its ability to handle fast changing or perishable content, such as TV and radio to mobile, its real-time integration to operator billing systems, and the granularity of its reporting to both operators and content providers. All of these features are designed to dramatically improve the quality of experience to the consumer of the content. The platform derives from more than five years of development and engineering by BT, designed to assure scalability in carrier grade environments.

The iO service is currently available through BT Global Services.