The GSMA, the global trade group for the mobile industry, today announced that it has added the Rich Communication Suite (RCS) Initiative to its work programme.
Supported by over 30 operators and vendors, RCS enables interoperable enriched communication including in-call multimedia sharing, conversational messaging and presence-enhanced contact management for mobile and fixed customers.
Alex Sinclair, the GSMA’s Chief Technology Officer said “We are pleased to support the continued progress of RCS that will enable mobile users to see at a glance whether their contacts are available to talk or exchange instant messages, easily initiate chat sessions with a group of friends or exchange pictures or videos during a voice call, regardless of which device or network they are using. Interoperability across networks - a core competence of the GSMA - is key to making these exciting services easy-to-use and popular.”
The RCS Plenary held in Chicago on August 25th 2008 marked the completion of the integration of the RCS Initiative into the GSMA, enabling the significant momentum behind RCS to be maintained. Over 30 companies are now supporting the initiative and the first interoperable RCS services are set to be launched in mid 2009.
The integration of the RCS Initiative into the GSMA’s work programme will bring a number of benefits to its continued development. Using its long experience of running similar projects with participation from a mix of operators and equipment suppliers, the GSMA is well-placed to develop and provide a stable and proven framework for the definition of business models, interworking guidelines and technical reference implementation.
The integration of the RCS Initiative into the GSMA’s work programme will bring a number of benefits to its continued development. Using its long experience of running similar projects with participation from a mix of operators and equipment suppliers, the GSMA is well-placed to develop and provide a stable and proven framework for the definition of business models, interworking guidelines and technical reference implementation.
The core feature set of RCS includes:
•Enhanced Phonebook, with service capabilities and presence enhanced contacts information
•Enhanced Messaging, which enables a large variety of messaging options including chat and messaging history
•Enriched Call, which enables multimedia content sharing during a voice call.
Further integration testing is planned to take place in Helsinki at the end of September hosted by TeliaSonera and, in parallel with the commercialization of initial RCS services, the next phases of RCS plan to include additional functionality and different types of devices. A full update on the progress of the initiative supported with live demonstrations will be showcased at the GSMA’s Mobile Asia Congress in Macau in November 2008.
Founded in 2007 by AT&T, France Telecom/Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, TeliaSonera, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung, RCS has now grown to include over 30 operators and vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Bouygues Telecom, EMOBILE, Huawei, KDDI , LG Electronics, NEC, NTT, NTT DoCoMo, Motorola, SFR, SK Telecom, SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp, Swisscom, Telstra, Telenor, TMN and Toshiba.
ENDS
About GSMA
The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade body representing more than 750 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. The Association's members represent more than 3 billion GSM and 3GSM connections - over 86% of the world's mobile phone connections. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association's initiatives.
The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers.
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