MANILA, The Philippines-Philippine mobile operator Smart Communications and America Online (AOL) have forged a deal that will provide the operator access to an instant messaging service known as ICQ (pronounced “I seek you”).
The ICQ messaging service offers Smart’s nearly 8 million subscribers the use of ICQ two-way short message service (SMS) or text messaging, ICQ for SMS, ICQ for Wireless Access Protocol (WAP), including General Packet Radio Service (GRPS) and ICQ for J2ME.
With ICQ two-way SMS, Smart subscribers can send and receive instant messages using their SMS-enabled phones with any ICQ user connected via a desktop, mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other wireless device. ICQ users worldwide also have the ability to send messages using ICQ on desktops, cellular phones or PDAs directly to Smart wireless subscribers (as well as subscribers of 170 networks globally).
Smart stated that ICQ users can also send SMS messages around the world from both the messaging center on the ICQ Web site to Smart subscribers. Although the cellular phones receiving these messages must be SMS-enabled, the recipients do not need to be ICQ users.
