Bombed out mobile communication specialist Synchronica has won a contract with US network computing solutions group Sun Microsystems.

Under the deal, described by Synchronica’s boss Carsten Brinkschulte as a ‘major milestone’, San Francisco-based and Nasdaq-quoted Sun will pay an initial £900,000 licence fee to use the first major version of Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway system, once the US group accepts the software. Sun, a leading global supplier of computing solutions, servers, storage. software and services, can buy additional licences at up to £1.20 per user per year.

Alternatively, Sun could opt to consolidate the licences into a one-off fee of up to £2.3 million. There is also a support contract, worth £75,000 a year to AIM-quoted Synchronica, plus a fee of up to £2,250 per support incident.

Sun intends to use Tunbridge Wells-based Synchronica’s core SyncML Mobile Gateway technology to enable over-the-air synchronisation of the Sun Java Communications Suite with any mobile device supporting SyncML. This is the dominant industry standard, incorporated into more than 1.3 billion mobile devices from leading makers, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola.

Brinkschulte, who founded Synchronica before it lost its way within ill-starred mobile services venture DAT Group, is now trying to steer the loss-making company back to health. He claims the new deal ‘marks the beginning of a long-term strategic relationship with Sun’.

Floated in 2004 at 130p, Synchronica shares soared to 530p in DAT’s heyday, before collapsing all the way to 6.88 by last June. Now 8.63p, up 0.75p this morning and valuing the company at £6.9 million, they have speculative recovery possibility.