Despite the operator support behind Rich Communications Services (RCS), it will only be the very biggest international players that deploy the technology in their own networks. The rest will look to cloud-based offerings to fulfil their needs, according to business systems firms SAP Mobile Services.
Operator group Deutsche Telekom has become the latest firm to offer the GSMA’s Joyn messaging platform to its users. The operator has rolled out the service to customers in its native Germany.
Almost twelve months after Vodafone Spain became the first mobile operator to officially launch Joyn, South Korea’s SK Telecom has announced a fairly impressive one million users for its Joyn.T service, just 50 days after it was launched in December 2012.
South Korean operator SK Telecom has announced that it has acquired one million users for its Joyn service, just 50 days after of launching it.
It’s that time of year again. The time that industry professionals know only too well, as we see our schedules for the final week in February rapidly running out of space – we’re all preparing ourselves for the exhausting experience that is Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Well, unless you work at Microsoft or RIM, it seems.
The GSMA-backed rich communication service initiative Joyn has split opinion among the industry’s forecasters. Some are encouraged by the strides the service has made, whereas others believe this is too little a step taken too late. Nonetheless, Joyn now seems to be gaining momentum; in recent weeks, Spain’s big three operators have thrown their weight behind the cause as well as SK Telecom in South Korea.
South Korean operator SK Telecom has become the latest carrier to throw its weight behind the GSMA’s Joyn initiative after announcing the availability of its joyn.T rich communications service to subscribers. The Joyn proposition, announced by GSMA at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last year, is the group’s response to the increasing popularity of network independent, OTT messaging applications.
A Silicon Valley startup on Wednesday received funding from Vodafone to help make the carrier’s answer to OTT (over the top) services a viable alternative to the likes of Skype and WhatsApp.
Three Spanish operators have teamed up in an effort to combat the threat of OTT communication providers such as WhatsApp and Skype by launching the Joyn service to their subscribers. With this move, Movistar, Orange and Vodafone have helped make Spain the first country to offer the fully interoperable operator-led communications solution to subscribers.
US carrier MetroPCS has taken a lead in the US by becoming the first network to offer Rich Communications Services (RCS) on its LTE network. RCS is designed to offer enhanced features such as chat, messaging and content sharing directly via the network, rather than through third party offerings.
Spanish carrier Telefónica gave a first look at Joyn on Wednesday, making an Android application available in its domestic market.
There is an interesting parallel between today’s announcement that Telefónica is launching an app-based rich communications play—TU Me—and the unveiling two weeks ago of its O2UK arm’s mobile wallet offering. In both situations, Telefónica is simultaneously leading collaborative efforts along similar lines with the very operators on which it is attempting to steal a march by being quick to market.
Mobile operators are communicating to their OEMs that support for RCSe/Joyn is now a key criterion for their devices to be included in the operators’ portfolios, though it is not yet mandatory. Telefonica has said that if a device does not support RCS/Joyn, it will not be dropped from their handset portfolio. But Vodafone is taking a tougher stance, saying that devices that do not support RCS/Joyn will find it tough to get into the operator’s handset portfolio.
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