OMNISKY TEAMS WITH CERTICOM TO DELIVER ADVANCED SECURITY FOR OMNISKY WIRELESS CORPORATE E-MAIL ACCESS

Certicom Brings its Secure Messaging Solutions to OmniSky Subscribers Using Microsoft Outlook

PALO ALTO & HAYWARD, Calif. January 17, 2001 - Certicom (Nasdaq: CERT; TSE: CIC), a leading provider of mobile e-business security and OmniSky (Nasdaq: OMNY), the award-winning provider of branded wireless e-mail and Internet services for users of handheld devices, today announced a strategic licensing agreement to provide advanced security for OmniSky subscribers using Microsoft Outlook as their corporate e-mail. Through the agreement, OmniSky will deploy Certicom's leading Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology with its popular Internet access software to provide users of Microsoft Outlook with the most advanced wireless Internet messaging security available today.

"OmniSky is committed to giving individuals and companies communicating wirelessly confidence that their communications are secure," said Dave Rensin, chief product officer at OmniSky. "Through our relationship with Certicom, we will be able to offer our customers the highest level of security and authentication for their wireless communications needs, further enhancing the user experience."

OmniSky provides a corporate e-mail solution by providing users secure access to Microsoft Outlook e-mail that is behind a firewall. This solution is currently in beta to test it in a real-world setting and ensure the solution is robust and ready for commercial launch. In addition to giving users access to their Microsoft Outlook e-mail, it enables flexible management of both personal and work e-mail. The Company plans to roll out its corporate e-mail support - starting with Microsoft Outlook 98 and 2000 programs - in future enhancements to the OmniSky service. 

To give a complete range of access to corporate e-mail, a critical application for wireless services, OmniSky provides solutions for mobile professionals who use Microsoft Outlook and to enterprises that wish to deploy a secure, server-based, wireless corporate e-mail solution.

The OmniSky wireless e-mail and Internet service offers unlimited usage and enables subscribers to access and navigate the Internet, send and receive e-mail messages and securely conduct e-commerce transactions all for a fixed monthly fee. OmniSky currently offers its service within the United States in over 118 major metropolitan areas, encompassing over 160 million people. 

The agreement allows OmniSky to extend Certicom's industry-standard security beyond the wireless web and e-mail services - in which it is presently used - to additional value-added services such as corporate e-mail access. Certicom's ECC technology provides the high performance security needed to enable secure real-time wireless communications and transactions. 

"OmniSky is well known as a leader in the handheld e-mail and Internet services arena and its subscribers look to OmniSky for easy-to-use, reliable wireless Internet services," said Richard Depew, Certicom's executive vice president, field operations. "Subscribers are demanding the highest levels of security when it comes to their messaging solutions. Our relationship provides OmniSky subscribers with the most trusted security technology available today."

About Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Developed for a broad range of computing platforms and maximum interoperability, Certicom's Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology enables strong, high performance security for virtually every piece of the computing infrastructure, including the new generation of small form-factor products such as handheld computers, pagers, cell phones and smart cards. Certicom's patented implementation of ECC technology provides a more efficient alternative to conventional public key cryptographic algorithms in many mobile and wireless environments, allowing for faster processing speed, reduced bandwidth usage and decreased battery requirements. These advantages make Certicom's ECC-based security technology particularly well suited to mobile devices that incorporate less powerful processors, such as handheld computing devices, Internet-enabled phones and two-way pagers. 

About OmniSky

OmniSky Corporation (Nasdaq: OMNY) is mobilizing the Internet for users of handheld devices. The OmniSky wireless e-mail and Internet service lets subscribers send and receive e-mail messages, enables subscribers to access and navigate the Internet, and securely conduct e-commerce transactions, offering unlimited usage at a fixed monthly fee. OmniSky partners with the leading wireless hardware, services and infrastructure providers, including AT&T Wireless, PSINet, Aether Systems, and InfoSpace, as well as the most popular online content and commerce providers, including AOL, eBay, E*TRADE, and Yahoo! Subscribers can access nearly 1,000 links to optimized Web content through an intuitive wireless portal that organizes information into categories such as finance, shopping, news, sports and more. In addition, subscribers can search and surf the Web through the OmniSky wireless portal. The OmniSky service is available for the HP Jornada 540 Series, Handspring Visor Platinum and Visor Prism and the Palm V and Palm Vx handheld devices. The company expects to offer service on multiple devices, platforms and networks capable of offering handheld users a compelling wireless experience. 

OmniSky currently offers its service within the United States in over 118 major metropolitan areas, encompassing over 160 million people. Through a joint venture with News Corporation, OmniSky expects to begin offering its wireless service internationally in the first half of 2001. OmniSky is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. For more information visit http://www.omnisky.com/ or call (650) 969-7700.

About Certicom
Certicom is a leading provider of information security software and services, specializing in solutions for mobile e-business. The company's products and services are specifically designed to address the challenges imposed by a wireless data environment. Certicom's solutions incorporate its proprietary encryption technology and are based on industry standards for information security that utilize public key cryptography. Certicom's products are currently licensed to more than 125 customers including ePocrates, Inc., Motorola, Inc., NeoPoint, Inc., Palm, Inc., Pixo, Inc., QUALCOMM, Inc., Research In Motion Ltd. and Sony International (Europe) GmbH. Certicom's headquarters and worldwide sales and marketing operations are based in the Silicon Valley in Hayward. For more information, visit Certicom's Web site at http://www.certicom.com

Certicom is a trademark of Certicom Corp. All other companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Except for historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, those relating to the acceptance of mobile and wireless devices and the continued growth of e-commerce and m-commerce (mobile e-commerce), the increase of the demand for mutual authentication in m-commerce transactions, the acceptance of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology as an industry standard, the market acceptance of our principle products and sales of our customer's products, the impact of competitive products and technologies, the possibility of our products infringing patents and other intellectual property of third parties, and costs of product development. Certicom will not update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. More detailed information about potential factors that could affect Certicom's financial results is included in the documents Certicom files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities including Certicom's current Annual Report on Form 10-K.

For further information, please contact:

Lorraine Kauffman Amanda Higgins
Public Relations Manager Corporate Communications
Certicom Corp. OmniSky
(510) 780-5417 (650) 962-4361
lkauffman@certicom.com amanda@omnisky.com


Scott Wyban
Lutchansky Communications for Certicom
(408) 938-9050 x 22
scott@lcomm.com