EQO Communications, a leading developer of presence-enabled calling and instant messaging solutions and services, announced that the BC Technology Industries Association (BC TIA) has named EQO winner of the "Most Promising Start-up" category of the 2006 Technology Impact Awards. The Technology Impact Awards (TIAs) is the premier awards program devoted to promoting and celebrating outstanding leadership, innovation and high-tech excellence in the province of British Columbia.

The BC TIA "Most Promising Start-up" award acknowledges an early-stage technology company with commercially available products that demonstrates significant potential, creativity, and a promising future.

"Our forward-thinking management team and dedicated employees have enabled us to create a unique product offering that empowers people to remain connected with their online friends through the most personal of personal technology devices -- the mobile phone," said Bill Tam, CEO of EQO Communications. "Gaining the recognition of the BC TIA as the most promising start-up in the BC technology community is compelling endorsement of our company, our technology and our vision."

"Our judges were extremely impressed with the quality and diversity of this year's applicants and the record number of submissions," said Rob Cruickshank, President of BC TIA. "To emerge as the winner is a significant accomplishment given the competitiveness of the awards. EQO Communications is very deserving of this recognition."

EQO (pronounced "echo") extends online communities to mobile devices with presence-enabled real-time communications capabilities. The company's debut product, EQO Mobile for Skype consists of EQO Mobile Internet Phone Service for Skype, launched at the 2006 DEMO technology conference and EQO Mobile Instant Messaging for Skype, introduced at Spring VON 2006.

Using a combination of a phone-resident J2ME client and a presence-enabled Voice-over-IP (VoIP) signaling network, EQO Mobile for Skype is capable of bridging online identity, VoIP calling, and Instant Messaging services to hundreds of millions of J2ME-capable mobile phones already in use worldwide, including more than 45 different handset models from vendors including Nokia, Motorola, Palm, and Sony-Ericsson. Most recently, EQO announced support for Palm TREO 650 and Motorola ROKR, SLVR, and RAZR handsets.

EQO Mobile is available for free to consumers as a Beta product via the EQO (pronounced "echo") web site at www.eqo.com.