T-Mobile USA Inc. is replacing its America Online Inc. instant-messaging service in favor of a more open, standards-based offering. The carrier signed a deal with IM company Oz Communications to install a gateway in its network that complies with instant-messaging and presence specifications from the Open Mobile Alliance standards body. The move could give T-Mobile subscribers access to a variety of popular instant-messaging programs.
T-Mobile said it will continue to support its current AOL instant-messaging service, as well as phones that have built-in AOL instant-messaging clients. The carrier said, however, that it will transition to the new Oz IM technology, and will gradually phase out its AOL service.
“We’re kind of in a transition phase,” said Kim Thompson, a spokeswoman for T-Mobile. “We’ve seen great growth in instant messaging.”
T-Mobile signed a major deal with AOL in 2001, when the carrier was still called VoiceStream Wireless. The deal called for T-Mobile to sell AOL content as well as its popular IM program.
T-Mobile’s new IM service will use a billing and management gateway from Oz. The gateway will be able to support a number of instant-messaging programs, including AOL Instant Messanger and IM programs from Yahoo! and MSN. The reason for the change, Thompson said, was so T-Mobile could expand its offerings beyond just those of AOL.
Thompson said Oz’s instant-messaging gateway is already installed and in operation. She said the service works on the Nokia Corp. 3595, which features a built-in instant-messaging client that uses the same OMA IM specifications as Oz’s gateway. Thompson said T-Mobile plans to sell additional OMA-compliant phones in the future. Thompson said T-Mobile’s new IM service currently supports AOL’s Instant Messenger and ICQ programs. She said the carrier would add additional IM programs in the near future, but declined to give details.
T-Mobile’s move comes on the heels of a number of significant instant-messaging deployments. Verizon Wireless recently launched a BREW application that gives users access to AOL, Yahoo! and MSN instant-messaging programs and has even been promoting the service in its ubiquitous TV commercials. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. too plans to offer all three of the nation’s most popular IM programs. And Cingular Wireless L.L.C. recently signed a deal with Openwave Systems Inc. to deploy an IM server that complies with the OMA’s instant-messaging specifications. Cingular said it will first offer AOL’s instant-messaging program using the server.
Such news essentially marks a new era in the wireless instant-messaging industry. For years, industry analysts have hyped wireless instant messaging, pointing to the success of desktop instant-messaging programs as evidence. Indeed, desktop IM vendors like AOL and others hoped wireless services would supplement the relatively minor revenues they made on desktop IM offerings. However, wireless instant-messaging services have been deployed in a piecemeal fashion, with the nation’s carriers split among AOL, Yahoo! and MSN.
To smooth out the fractured nature of IM offerings, industry leaders formed the Wireless Village initiative in 2001 to set standards for instant messaging. The group was later absorbed into the OMA, a sort of umbrella standards body. The OMA in 2001 introduced its first IM and presence specifications.
Oz is one of the many companies offering OMA-compliant technology. Nokia, Openwave and others are selling IM servers and gateways. Interestingly, Motorola last year stopped selling its IM server product in an effort to cut costs.
