U.K. mobile Internet services provider Genie said it has selected Openwave Systems Inc. , which provides open Internet protocol (IP)-based communication infrastructure software and applications, to provide an integrated Web, WAP and SMS Instant Messaging platform for its 5.8 million registered users.
The new system is expected to launch with Genie U.K. customers early in 2002, officials said. Financial details behind the deal were not provided.
The Genie deployment of Openwave Instant Messaging will provide subscribers with presence information about their contacts, interoperability with both SMS and Microsoft MSN Messenger communities, and a “simple, intuitive” mobile instant messaging experience, officials said. Openwave quoted recent Jupiter Communications statistics as saying MSN Messenger is currently the leading Web-based service in the UK with over three-and-a-half million unique users as of July 2001.
Genie recently launched GenieOne, a consumer integrated messaging solution running on the Openwave Unified Messaging platform, enabling subscribers to tailor their communications by using interactive text, voice and WAP-based messaging from mobile, PC, WAP and PSTN environments. Users benefit by enjoying the freedom to reply to messages using either text or verbal communication, regardless of device.
Openwave said it has been actively working with standards-based working groups like IMunified.org, GSM Association and the WAP Forum, and with Genie and other European carriers to develop guidelines for carrier-to-carrier interoperability for mobile instant messaging.
Bob Woods is the managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.com.