The GSMA today announced the nominees for the Israel Tournament of the 2010 Mobile Innovation Grand Prix competition, along with a number of high-calibre industry executives who will speak at the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Israel event, which is part of the 13th Annual Journey Conference, a leading technology event held by Ernst & Young in Tel Aviv on September 15, 2009. The GSMA has partnered with Carmel Ventures, a leading Israeli venture capital firm, to host the Israel round of its global Mobile Innovation competition.

The Mobile Innovation ‘Grand Prix’ was created by the GSMA to showcase promising entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized companies introducing innovative products and services who require industry support to achieve market deployment. During the Israel event, ten companies from around the world will compete in three categories, and will be reviewed by senior executives from mobile operators and venture capital firms. The two overall winners from the Israel tournament will win a trip to compete in the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix Finals at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2010.

The ten finalists for the Israel leg of the 2010 Mobile Innovation Grand Prix are:

Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure or VAS Platform
• Siklu Wireless Communications (Israel)
• Mobixell Networks (Israel)
• Telmap Ltd. (USA)
• cVidya (Israel)

Most Innovative Consumer Application or Service
• MeeMix Ltd. (Israel)
• waze (Israel)
• TuneWiki (US)
• fring (Israel)

Most Innovative Enterprise Application or Service
• LiveU Ltd. (Israel)
• XSIGHTS (Israel)

“We are delighted with the number of high-quality entries we’ve received for the Israel leg of the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix competition being held in Tel Aviv next month,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer at the GSMA. “This event will provide a unique and valuable opportunity for each of these companies to pitch new mobile products, services, applications and business propositions to senior executives within the mobile ecosystem.”

The GSMA has also announced a number of headline speakers for the Mobile Innovation Israel event in Tel Aviv, each of whom will address current industry issues and trends, as well as debate ways in which the broad ecosystem can encourage and leverage new and innovative ideas to help shape the future success of mobile communications. These speakers and panelists include Dr. Irwin M. Jacobs, co-founder and former Chairman and CEO of Qualcomm; Bob Borchers, General Partner, Opus Capital; Guy Bauman, VP Business Development, Pelephone; and Rina Shainski, General Partner, Carmel Ventures.

Mobile Innovation Exchange
To compete in the regional tournaments of the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix, innovators must be a member of the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Exchange. The Mobile Innovation Exchange is an online community whose focus is to promote mobile innovation and builds on the success of the regional events. The Mobile Innovation Exchange portal facilitates year-round dialogue, deal-making, partnering and consensus building across all the elements of the mobile ecosystem.

For more information on the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Israel Event and the Mobile Innovation Exchange, please visit: http://www.mobileinnovation.org/events & www.mobileinnovation.org.

The Mobile Innovation Grand Prix – Israel Tournament will also be streamed online for global viewing at: www.mobileinnovation.org.