Instant Messages to Travel Across Asian Mobile Networks
16 October 2006
Asian operators team up with the GSMA to rollout personal instant messaging
16th October 2006 - Singapore: Mobile operators in Asia plan to enable their customers to exchange instant messages (IM) with friends across different networks as part of the global personal IM campaign run by the GSM Association.
In Malaysia, all three GSM operators, Celcom, DiGi Telecommunications and Maxis have agreed to launch interoperable IM services during 2007, while M1, SingTel Mobile and StarHub in Singapore will start to plan the development of interoperable IM services. India's GSM operators, which announced that they would adopt personal IM in February, are planning to launch commercial services in early 2007. The GSMA, the global trade association for mobile operators, launched its personal IM campaign in Barcelona in February with the ultimate goal of making instant messaging on mobile networks as ubiquitous and popular as text messaging. The operators' IM services in India, Malaysia and Singapore will all be based on a technical and commercial framework designed by the GSMA to maximise ease-of-use, interoperability and reliability, while minimising spam and viruses.
"By enabling a rapid-fire text-based dialogue, soon to be enriched with pictures, music and even video, IM is further extending the array of communications options open to mobile phone users," said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA. "Asia's mobile operators are laying the foundations for the long-term success of IM by adopting the same principles of security, reliability, interoperability and 'sending party pays' that have made text messaging such a success."
To help mobile operators quickly roll out personal IM services, the GSMA has developed managed services guidelines, which are designed to be the basis of a request for proposal from IM technology suppliers. Moreover, leading suppliers of mobile IM platforms are making their technology interoperable, ensuring operators can launch services that enable their customers to send messages across networks. This is an important step toward enabling operators in Europe and India, which use a range of different technology suppliers, to roll-out interoperable IM services.
India's mobile operators are aiming to have achieved interoperability at a technical level by February 2007. "We in Bharti Airtel are greatly excited about the potential for Mobile IM in India," said Manoj Kohli, President of Bharti Airtel, one of India's leading mobile operators. "We are actively participating in the COAI* Special Committee on IM, which comprises all Indian GSM operators, and is working for an interconnect hub solution to ensure seamless IM interoperability between all mobile networks. Our common goal is to launch mobile IM in India by early 2007".
Since Turkcell, the largest mobile operator in Turkey, launched Turkcell Messenger in February 2005, the IM service has gained significant customer awareness and is now supported by over 100 handset models.
"Turkcell Messenger has become increasingly popular within its target market and viral marketing campaigns, in which subscribers take an active part in promoting the service, have played an important role in this take-up," said Cenk Serdar, Chief Value Added Services Officer at Turkcell. "Turkcell has taken an active part in the GSMA Personal IM Campaign among operators since the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. As a pioneer in mobile operator-branded instant messaging, Turkcell has been committed to making its mobile IM services interoperable with other fixed and mobile service providers in the market."
Notes to editors:
COAI is the Cellular Operators Association of India and is closely associated with the GSMA.
For further information contact:
Mark Smith/David Pringle
GSM Association
/ +44 795 755 6069
Email:press@gsm.org
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