Carriers & GSMA are Signalling RCS-e is Real!

The announcement on Friday that Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange will be launching RCS-e in the first half of 2012 is most certainly a signal to the rest of the carrier community that after all the talk, five RCS technical specifications, and contentious debates, RCS is finally happening and gaining momentum. 

Some may are argue that this is just a political exercise to defend a poorly conceived technology with no future and that we have seen the announcements before.  This time I choose to I believe it’s finally real.

The collaboration between the operators is a positive sign – you don’t actually need full interoperability as a pre-requisite for RCS launch, but it certainly makes life easier if it’s available from day one. In other markets, we can expect to see some pioneer operators going it alone, but maybe the first country to launch needs to prove that it can be achieved.

We’ve been advocates of many of the features and technologies found in RCS for a long time this is real validation of the vision. It’s only one geographic market, but it seems inevitable that more will follow. Other operators and OpCos have to be watching this with interest, but it’s important that they don’t wait too long to jump in -- or they will be left behind. Over the top players like Whats App don’t wait for the product to be defined and validated by several internal product committees and the financing approved by their companies investment committee.  They innovate, take risks and adapt the product and technology as they go along.  The innovative companies know this, so we anticipate that other announcements will be made later in the year.

My hope is that we shall see clear commitments emerging at MWC, the traditional place for major announcements by mobile operators, but even if we don’t, this is still a major boost for the industry. It’s exciting to finally see solid progress on delivering the RCS vision.

-- Brent