posted on 13 February 2006 17:37
by
paul
Orange and Vodafone to link mobile instant messaging communities
This could be interesting
Source: http://www.orange.com/english/media/pressReleaseMC.asp?id=1046&action=&txtKeywords=&country=0&year=0&categoryId=0&page=1 and http://www.vodafone.com/article_with_thumbnail/0,3038,OPCO%253D40000%2526CATEGORY_ID%253D210%2526MT_ID%253Dpr%2526LANGUAGE_ID%253D0%2526CONTENT_ID%253D276338,00.html
13 February 2006, 3GSM World Congress, Barcelona. Orange Group and Vodafone Group ("the companies") today announced they are finalising an agreement to be the first multi-national mobile operators to launch Instant Messaging interoperability, with the intention to link Instant Messaging communities using the familiar "calling party pays" principle.
Working under the open standard interoperability principles, established by the GSM Association, Orange and Vodafone customers will be able to send and receive Instant Messages to friends and family seamlessly across each others' mobile networks.
"As we have seen over the last few years, service interoperability has unlocked the true potential for mobile. While we, as mobile operators, need to compete at the retail level, we must also continue to work together at the service interoperability level in order to stimulate customer demand and to continue to grow our industry," said Arun Sarin, Chief Executive at Vodafone. "With the support of the GSM Association, we hope to encourage all mobile operators to adopt this open, interoperable approach to instant messaging services, to ensure our customers benefit from seamless services in an environment they trust."