Irish wireless applications provider Network365 has secured a deal "in excess of six figures" to provide mobile payment software to leading Asian mobile operator Hong Kong CSL.

Network365 chief executive Mr Raomal Perera said the agreement was a turning point for the mobile commerce company and would eventually be worth seven or eight figures to Network365. Hong Kong CSL, one of the best-known operators in Asia, is already running a GPRS (general packet radio system, or 2.5G) mobile network and owns one of the region's next-generation 3G telephony licences.

"It's going to open up the Chinese market for us, we firmly believe," said Mr Perera.

The company also announced yesterday that it would provide a 3G-based shopping mall for Europe's first 3G trial on the Isle of Man, in partnership with MMO (formerly BT Wireless), and that it would create a euro-compliant web shopping site here for mobile operator Meteor.

Network365, founded by former Isocor vice-president Mr Perera in 1999, has targeted the Asian market from the outset, setting up offices in both Hong Kong and Japan.

Most of the company's 70 employees are headquartered in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, with a 10-person development group in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

"We believe where mobile technology is most advanced in its usage is in the East - Japan and Hong Kong," he said.

But Europe is close behind and the company expected its market to emerge out of the two regions' fast adoption of a "mobile lifestyle", he said.