Messaging goes mobile in the wireless village

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By Joris Evers

(IDG) -- Instant messaging has become a must-have application for millions of PC users. Now an industry group is hoping to turn mobile users on to the same technology.

Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola on Thursday announced the Wireless Village initiative, a joint project established to define and promote a set of universal specifications for mobile instant messaging and presence services.

The technology will allow users to send instant messages and subscribe to additional services on various devices, such as cell phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants, the companies say in a joint statement.

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Although the mobile services will have capabilities similar to those offered on a PC, the founders of the Wireless Village initiative envision phone users paying for most of the functionality. Users will be able to subscribe to presence services, such as a listing of which friends are currently online, a key function of instant messaging services on the PC.

"The presence service is really value-added and unique in the mobile environment," says Nokia spokesperson Jyrki Rosenberg. "In the mobile sphere it is more relevant than in the PC environment to know whether somebody is available or busy. The presence service will open up a new market and could also be linked with other services, like calendars."

Services based on the new specification can be offered on third-generation mobile networks as well as present-day second-generation networks and so-called 2.5G networks, the companies say.

"The user will get a richer service on more advanced networks," says Rosenberg.

The service will allow users to participate in private or public chat rooms and will include security capabilities for user authentication, secure message transfer, and access control, the companies says.

The new mobile instant messaging protocol will be based on existing technologies, such as XML, Short Message Service and its successor Multimedia Message Service, and other protocols such as Wireless Application Protocol and Session Initiation Protocol, the companies say.

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Ericsson
Nokia
Motorola

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