Bebo lands Virgin Media for the Open Mobile initiative

AOL announced today that Virgin Media has joined the Bebo Open Mobile program. The program provides mobile operators, manufacturers and developers the tools they need to create brand-customised, mobile versions of the social network for their customers.

Virgin announced two Bebo-related services. The first is Bebo Open Mobile Internet - a customised Bebo mobile site with Virgin branding, advertising and media. Virgin is also putting bookmarks for Bebo onto it’s devices pre-release, so that users will be able to access these services out of the box.

The second service is Bebo Open Mobile Messaging. This is a shortcode (22326) that users can use to send and recieve updates from their Bebo account.

From the release:

Sean Kane, VP Mobile, AOL People Networks, says: “Virgin Media’s decision to embed Bebo in their customer experience plays to both of our strengths and joins two great brands. In partnership with Virgin Media, we will be able to deliver great mobile content to more users in the UK.”

John Conlon, Marketing Controller of digital services at Virgin Media, said: “More and more of our customers are taking the Mobile internet with them and staying up-to-date and in touch with mobile social networking. Bebo Open Mobile allows us to offer all the great Bebo features in a simple and accessible way that makes sense for Virgin Media customers and we look forward to continuing to work with Bebo to bring new services and experiences to all consumers.”

What we think?

There’s no mention of whether or not those shortcode texts will be free or not, which is a really important part of this equation. Giving users the ability to stay in touch with their Bebo account constantly via SMS is a good thing - but only if it’s not going to decimate those users monthly limits. This is just one of many announcements recently for the Bebo Open Mobile program. It seems to be doing well - which I regard as a good thing The Open Mobile program is just one part of AOL People Networks larger plan to more closely integrate mobile and on-line life.