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Cingular Wireless, France Telecom, and Sprint Join The Messaging Anti Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) MAAWG Now With an Addressable Base of Over 300 Million Subscribers Across the World WILMINGTON, Del., Dec 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), a group of communications and technology companies committed to solving spam, viruses and other forms of messaging abuse, today announced that Cingular Wireless, France Telecom and Sprint have joined the group. "With an addressable base of over 300 million subscribers and a strong footprint in Asia, Europe and the Americas, we can now truly say that the MAAWG has made significant inroads into consolidating the fight against messaging abuse," said Omar Tellez, MAAWG's Outreach and Communications Chair and Openwave's Director of Market Development. "We welcome this group of premier wireless and wireline carriers and look forward to work with them to help define a set of best current practices across service providers to improve deliverability while eliminating spam and viruses." "Sprint is committed to improve our customers' wireless messaging experience and, we must cooperate to find solutions for eliminating spam and viruses," said Sharon Stanley, director of Platform Operations at Sprint. "As the volume of text messaging expands, it is clear that proactive methods are necessary to diminish future spam and to protect our customers." With France Telecom also joining, the forces against messaging abuse on both sides of he Atlantic are finding a new synergy. Founded in December of 2003, MAAWG is dedicated to solving messaging abuse on three fronts -- collaboration, technology and public policy. Members of MAAWG are working collaboratively to address and mitigate messaging abuse problems-including spam, viruses, forgery, fraud and other malicious attacks- affecting both broadband and mobile service providers and their customers. About MAAWG The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is an independent non- profit coalition of worldwide carriers and technology providers. MAAWG is dedicated to solving messaging abuse by working along three initiatives -- collaboration across operators, best practices technology, and providing an industry voice into public policy. MAAWG Members include: Sponsors (Board of Directors) -- America Online -- Bell Canada (TSE:BC_pa.TO) -- BellSouth (NYSE:BLS) -- Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) -- Cingular Wireless (NYSE:SBC) -- Cloudmark -- Cox Communications (NYSE:COX) -- EarthLink (NASDAQ:ELNK) -- France Telecom (Paris: FTE.PA) -- Goodmail Systems -- Openwave Systems (NASDAQ:OPWV) -- Verizon Full Members -- Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ, Nasdaq: IIJI) -- IronPort -- Sprint (NYSE:FON) Supporters -- Habeas -- MX Logic -- Return Path -- Omniti Computer -- TDS Telecom, TDS Metrocom (AMEX:TDS) For further information, contact: Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group 572B Ruger Street P.O. Box 29920 San Francisco, California 94129-0920 Telephone: 1-415-561-6277 Executive Director, Jerry Upton BellSouth Brent Fowler 1-404-829-8722 Openwave Systems Nicole Arena 1-650-346-4293 Alexandra Trask EarthLink 404-748-7267 Nicholas Graham Spokesperson, America Online 703-265-1801 Charles M. Fleckenstein Sprint 913-794-2943 DATASOURCE: Messaging Anti Abuse Working Group CONTACT: Jerry Upton, Executive Director of Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, +1-415-561-6277, ; or Brent Fowler of BellSouth, +1-404-829-8722, ; or Nicole Arena of Openwave Systems, +1-650-346-4293, ; or Alexandra Trask of EarthLink, +1-404-748-7267, ; Charles M. Fleckenstein of Sprint, +1-913-794-2943; or Nicholas Graham of America Online, +1-703-265- 1801

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