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Alternet Systems Inc. (ALYI) Subsidiary Wins Ecuadorian Mobile Wallet Project

^{Published on 2011-04-08 09:05:53 - Market Wire}
 

MIAMI, FL--(Marketwire - April 8, 2011) - Alternet Systems, Inc. (OTCQB: [ ALYI ]) (PINKSHEETS: [ ALYI ]), a leading enabler of secure mobile commerce and payment transactions, announced today that its mobile commerce subsidiary, Utiba Americas, won the public bid for the mobile wallet project of the Central Bank of Ecuador.

Ecuador, like many Latin American countries, has seen the penetration of mobile phone services explode in the past decade, reaching a staggering 103% of the population in 2011. The majority of inhabitants, however, still do not have access to a bank account. Noting the success of global mobile money projects in reaching and helping so called "bottom of the pyramid," low income segments of society, the Central Bank launched an investigation into successful deployments to identify and incorporate global best practices into their project.

The Ecuadorian mobile financial services project will provide all inhabitants with a mobile wallet for storing, sending and receiving money. The system will operate throughout the entire country, using cellular service from any one of the three mobile network operators present in Ecuador, and can integrate all financial institutions as they are already connected to the Central Bank of Ecuador. The mobile wallet will be linked to a new national identification card.

"The mobile money project is a key initiative for the Government of Ecuador to accelerate financial inclusion and we are pleased to have Utiba Americas as our technology partner to enable this project," mentioned Santiago Vasquez, Central Bank of Ecuador's Mobile Financial Services Program Director.

Alternet CEO, Henryk Dabrowski, also commented, "We are extremely pleased that Utiba Americas has been selected to participate in the ambitious project of the Central Bank of Ecuador. Utiba Americas is unique in offering a mobile financial services platform that has been widely deployed and that handles significant transaction volumes, and in offering this platform as a service, not only as a traditional software license."

About Utiba Pte. Ltd
Since its incorporation in 2001, Utiba has focused exclusively on the development of the most scalable, flexible and modular, mobile financial transaction platform in the market, Utiba Mobility. The Utiba Platform enables mobile phone based transactions including electronic airtime distribution, retail mobile banking, domestic & international remittance, government benefit distribution, and utility payments, among others. Utiba's clients include Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Banks, and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) which have created highly successful solutions tailored to the microfinance and rural banking industries. The Utiba platform has been successfully deployed for over 40 customers in more than 30 countries. The platform currently supports more than 400 million subscribers, approximately 12 billion transactions per year, which represents 30% of the global, mobile commerce data traffic. For more information, visit [ www.utiba.com ].

About UTIBA Americas
Utiba Americas is an affiliate of Utiba Pte, a pioneer and global leader in mobile financial transaction systems. Utiba Americas offers the powerful Utiba Mobility Mobile Commerce Platform as a traditional software license, or as a Software as a Service (SaaS). With the hosted service, Utiba Americas provides its customers access to the most robust and flexible mobile commerce platform without the upfront costs of acquiring licenses and hardware, and the on-going expense of personnel to administer and monitor the platform.

About Alternet Systems Inc.

[ Alternet Systems Inc ]. (OTCQB: [ ALYI ]) (PINKSHEETS: [ ALYI ]), a US corporation headquartered in Miami, Florida, is a leading enabler of Secure Mobile Commerce and Communications in the Americas and Caribbean. Alternet has regional presences in 17 countries throughout the region through a network of fulfillment partners and agents. Alternet's subsidiaries provide a comprehensive suite of hosted and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications for the Utility, Transportation, Financial, and Telecommunication, and Retail industries. Alternet subsidiaries include Utiba Americas, a joint venture with Utiba Pte Ltd., the leading provider of mobile payment and financial transaction software, and International Mobile Security (IMS) a newly formed provider of mobile communications security products and services.

"SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT" UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995
Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.