Bharti Airtel licenses Synchronica messaging tools

Email, synchronisation, IM and social networking for 19 countries across Asia and Africa.

Synchronica's Mobile Gateway combines all these comms tools in a single platform, which is then offered for a flat-rate, monthly charge.

The system works well on feature phones, so a big part of the firm's focus is emerging markets. Hence this deal.

Airtel Ghana will be the first operator to launch Airtel Connect for $1.99  a month for unlimited use. It will be available to any Airtel mobile customer, regardless of the type of mobile device they own.

"Synchronica has proven itself to be the ideal mobile messaging partner for us," said Andre Beyers, CMO of Airtel Africa.

"Since we chose to work with Synchronica, they have met all of our development, integration and deployment milestones. With Airtel Connect we can offer all of our customers, regardless of which mobile device they use, a user-friendly way of connecting to their favourite email, IM and social networking services."