Rich Communication Services (RCS) Updates

Global operators, including América Móvil, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Globe Telecom, KPN, Millicom, MTN, Orange, PLAY, Smart Communications, Sprint, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, Telstra, TIM, Turkcell, VimpelCom, Vodafone, the GSMA, and Google today announced the launch of a mobile industry initiative to accelerate the availability of Rich Communications Services (RCS). The initiative will enable all operators worldwide to provide an open, consistent, and globally interoperable messaging service across Android devices. Operators have agreed to transition toward a common, universal profile based on the GSMA’s RCS specifications and an Android RCS client provided by Google in collaboration with operators and OEMs.
By aligning on a universal RCS profile, mobile operators will be able to deploy a consistent RCS implementation, feature set, and configuration. The Android RCS client provided by Google will be based on the universal profile, enabling consumers to access RCS services on their devices. Features such as group chat, high-res photo sharing, read receipts, and more, will now become part of the operator messaging experience, enhancing the experience of over 4 billion SMS users worldwide¹. GSMA RCS advanced calling features will also be supported in the future by Google.

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SMS is one of the most ubiquitous forms of communication today, used by billions of people worldwide. Over the course of this year, we’ve worked with the mobile industry on an initiative to upgrade SMS for users, to provide a better, more enhanced messaging experience through RCS (Rich Communications Services). And now more than 58 carriers and manufacturers, collectively covering a subscriber base of 4.7 billion people globally, have committed to supporting a single, standard implementation of RCS.
Today, we’re excited to announce the next step in this initiative with our first carrier launch supporting the new universal RCS profile. Together with Sprint, we’re launching RCS messaging to their customers using Android devices, starting today. This will bring enhanced features including group chat, high-res photo sharing, read receipts, and more to the standard messaging experience on Android. Sprint subscribers will have their standard SMS experience upgraded through the Messenger app for Android devices, developed by Google. The service will be powered by the Jibe RCS cloud from Google.

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Operators: AIS, América Móvil, Axiata Group, Beeline, Bell Mobility, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Claro Brazil, Claro Colombia, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Globe Telecom, Indosat Ooredoo, KPN, M1, Megafon, Millicom, MTN, MTS, Optus, Orange, Personal Argentina, Personal Paraguay, PLAY, Reliance Jio, Rogers Communications, Singtel, Smart Communications, Sprint, StarHub, Telcel Mexico, Tele2, Telefónica, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, Telkomsel, Telstra, Telus, TIM, T-Mobile US, Turkcell, Verizon, VimpelCom, and Vodafone.

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But T-Mobile and AT&T have launched RCS messaging, right? Yes. But their versions don't work with Google's (Sprint's) RCS. And AT&T's RCS messaging doesn't work with T-Mobile's, and vice versa. And there's no indication that this will change any time soon. While both T-Mobile and AT&T have expressed very tentative interest in developing intercompatible RCS messaging platforms, that's just the thing: carriers seem much more interested in making "advanced messaging" a carrier feature rather than the universal SMS replacement it was developed to be. "Come to AT&T, our Advanced Messaging(TM) offers features others don't!" (read: "Don't leave AT&T or you'll lose the unique features we've built into our messaging client that don't work on other carriers"). Verizon, for its part, hasn't even committed to using RCS at all - the carrier has its own proprietary messaging platform not based on RCS, and that doesn't work with any other services.

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Ouch said:

cannot wait to see what airtel would charge for rcs powered messaging.

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Samsung Electronics today announced its plan to expand its Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging service using the recently-acquired NewNet Communication Technologies RCS solution. Samsung’s RCS service is a complete end-to-end solution that includes RCS-enabled devices, native/downloadable device clients, cloud-based RCS application servers, an interconnectivity hub among operators and a third-party monetization platform.

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Samsung’s RCS cloud will allow mobile network operators to quickly launch the service and avoid the costly and time-consuming efforts of building their own network infrastructure. Additionally, Samsung’s RCS hub will support and simplify the interconnectivity among other RCS-enabled operators, Samsung and third-party RCS clouds, allowing for the same service ubiquity for users as SMS and MMS.

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