RCS launches to consumers as ‘joyn’

LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2012: The GSMA this morning made several announcements around Rich Communication Services (RCS) – including the creation of a consumer-facing brand, joyn.
The industry body said the new brand would be used by operators to give a global ‘face’ to RCS services. “joyn will act as a mark of assurance to customers that they will have simple and direct access to enriched voice and messaging services wherever they are and whatever network they are using,” said the GSMA’s Director General Anne Bouverot.
Rich Communications is a major play by the operator community to compete more effectively with the over-the-top players. It enables services such as enhanced messaging and voice, video calling and content sharing directly from the phone’s contact book, regardless of the network or device used.
The Spanish arms of Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone have started rolling out RCS and are due to launch services this summer – and the GSMA said today that operators in France, Germany, Italy and South Korea have also committed to commercial launches in 2012. As well as support from the most of the world’s major operators, the initiative is also supported by a range of device and equipment vendors, including HTC, Huawei, LG, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony and ZTE.
The latest RCS specs – version 5.0 – was also announced, providing support for “both existing and all-IP LTE networks” in areas such as IP-based voice and video calling; geo-location services and cloud storage.
“These services will be delivered to consumers in a seamless way and with the level of innovation, quality of service and attention to privacy that they have come to expect from their mobile operator,” added Bouverot.
Downloadable joyn apps for Android 2.3 devices will be available as part of live trials for visitors to Congress this week. The apps are available for Vodafone Spain customers via the operator’s Android store.