Developing Telecoms | Colibria connects MTS, Megafon, Beeline messaging to create pan-Russian messaging

21 May 2012

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Colibria connects MTS, Megafon, Beeline messaging to create pan-Russian messaging

Wednesday, 28 October 2009 12:01

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Colibria, in partnership with the messaging company Acision, has just enabled Russia’s largest operator, MTS, to interconnect its Chat Mobile Instant Messenger (MIM) service with Megafon and Beeline. This allows subscribers of the three operators to exchange messages seamlessly across their respective services. The new service, which will be jointly branded as Chat across all three networks, builds on year-on-year growth in messaging for MTS since 2008. This trend is expected to continue through the expansion of messaging access across Russian subscriber communities.

As messaging popularity continues to grow in Russia, with an estimated 20 million Instant Messenger (IM) users in the country, MTS has invested in promoting the service with above-the-line TV advertising, which has consequently seen peer-to-peer IM usage quadruple during the campaign. There are now thousands of chat rooms in use across the Chat service, with mobile users benefiting from a conversational messaging experience that allows them to share pictures, voice and video, all within the same application.

The MTS Chat service is powered by Acision’s Instant Messaging solution, which combines that company’s Person to Person Gateway with core elements from Colibria's product portfolio, including the state-of-the-art Instant Messaging and Presence Service (IMPS). Acision’s Instant Messaging solution is designed to provide “seamless integration between mobile instant messaging and SMS.”

Keith Gibson, CEO for Colibria, commented, “Mobile subscribers do not care for operator-imposed boundaries that prevent them communicating with their friends. They want to be able to access and interact with the wider community, regardless of their service provider. This announcement demonstrates how the industry is working together to ensure interoperability for existing and new generation messaging services, to deliver the best possible services to subscribers.”

Pavel Roitberg Product Director at MTS added, “We knew that for our messaging service to continue its successful growth in Russia, we had to ensure that all our mobile subscribers had the ability to access it.. This new interconnect agreement will enable subscribers to communicate easily with their friends and colleagues across the Megafon and Beeline networks using the Chat messaging service.”

Tony Morrish, General Manager for Europe, Russia and Africa at Acision, said, “Interconnection between operators within countries is a key step in providing the ability to communicate seamlessly, offering exciting communication experiences for subscribers...Acision and Colibria have gained valuable insight into the best ways to ensure ongoing messaging revenue growth by working together on the development of services such as this.”

Colibria is a provider of new-generation messaging and social networking solutions designed to enable operators and service providers to deploy enhanced messaging services in order to differentiate their services and to unlock new revenue streams.

Founded in 2000, Colibria has offices worldwide and is the provider of choice for enhanced messaging deployments and powers mobile communities throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America with a total addressable subscriber base in excess of 350 million. Colibria’s investors are Northzone Ventures, Verdane Capital and Ferd Venture.

** Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) is the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS. Together with its subsidiaries, the company services over 95.65 million subscribers. The regions of Russia, as well as Armenia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, in which MTS and its associates and subsidiaries are licensed to provide GSM services, have a total population of more than 230 million.

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