Rating: Planning to offer RCS-e capability to operator clients
To date, there hasn’t really been much of a buzz around Rich Communications Service (RCS) – which is a GSMA driven standard that unifies different types of communication into a single service on a mobile handset. However, Synchronica has decided to cement an alliance with Canada’s NewPace Technology Development to cooperate in the development, sales and marketing of a Rich Communications Suite (RCS) product. No prizes for guessing that Synchronica is planning to offer RCS to its client base of over 100 mobile operators worldwide. GoMo News suggests that the company has spotted an opportunity which RCS can fill in developing countries without the need for high speed mobile internet.As Northland Capital Partners said in a research note, “This partnership provides Synchronica with the technology option that it can offer to network operators without the need for substantial network changes.”
Here’s another clue. “We believe that our solution, which enables RCS services without capital outlay, will be of great interest to operators who are keen to deploy this next-generation technology but are put off by the prospect of making significant changes to their core network,” explained Kim Hartlev, CTO with Synchronica.
That sounds like developing economies (where Synchronica has significant strengths) to us here at GoMo News.
Northland pbserves, “RCS, has been bubbling under for a number of years but there has been a lack of handsets and deployments to date ”
Actually the world’s first RCS enabled messaging services went live as long ago as July 2009 in Korea.
These were KT’s ‘show moov’, SK Telecom’s ‘Mobile Messenger’ and LG Telecom’s ‘OZ messenger. (See our previous story here).
The relationship with NewPace extends back to January 2011 when Synchronica acquired Neustar NGM Messaging products.
NewPace’s professional services team had provided the technical support for the Neustar products and has continued doing so for Synchronica.
“This partnership presents us with a great deal of potential, not least the ‘time to market’ benefits of being able to provide a full RCS-e solution which meets the needs of our customers today,” commented, Simon Taylor, an executive vp with Synchronica.
If you want to know what RCS-e (Rich Communications Service – enhanced) offers see our previous news story here.
Given that Korea already has RCS in its home market and that world leading handset manufacturers – Samsung & LG – are Korean based, Synchronica shouldn’t have much difficulty sourcing RCS handsets.
And if you fancy writing a RCS-e smartphone app, you should get hold of the GSMA. More details here.
