Wireless industry leaders Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia, the founders of the Wireless Village initiative, announced today they have successfully demonstrated the world's first interoperable mobile instant messaging and presence services. The demonstration is an important milestone in developing the Wireless Village specification.
Carried out in Kista, Sweden, the demonstration showed how three different mobile phones were able to connect with two different mobile instant messaging and presence servers; one located in Sweden and the other in the US. The mobile terminals successfully completed some of the basic features of the Wireless Village client-server protocol. In particular, these features allowed different mobile phones to authenticate to a remote mobile IMPS server, exchange presence information (e.g., availability and location characteristics); as well as send and receive instant messages.
The internal demonstration is the result of an iterative process used by the Wireless Village initiative's technical team in defining their specifications. That process is an iteration of steps involving specification, prototype coding and demonstration. This process permits more rapid confirmation of the technical direction. Additional internal demonstrations are planned throughout the year, leading up to the publication of the specifications. Participation in these internal demonstrations are intended to be an additional benefit of being a Supporter of the initiative.
"The demonstration clearly confirms the technical direction of the Wireless Village specifications and that the scheduled work is on the right track", says Frank Dawson, Nokia representative and chairman of the Wireless Village initiative. "This successful demonstration shows the benefit of defining interoperable specifications. Operators can anticipate availability of different mobile devices that work with a choice of software servers, thus making the mobile Internet a more seamless experience for consumers."
"Interoperability is a challenge in today's telecommunications world, therefore this first interoperability demo is a major step for Wireless Village, and ensures interoperability in the future", says Jan Svensson, Vice President Ericsson Mobile Phones. "It is impressive that Wireless Village in such a short time has drafted both initial specifications and prototyped implementations, this looks very promising."
The Wireless Village initiative intends to deliver an architectural specification, protocol specifications, as well as test specifications and tools for mobile IMPS. The initiative will also define procedures and tools for testing conformance and interoperability of mobile instant messaging and presence services.
According to Bob Molnar, corporate Vice President at Motorola, "The success of this important demonstration moves the industry even closer to an interoperable instant messaging service that operators and their customers should find irresistible. Wireless Village continues to take positive steps towards providing an easy-to-use, experience that end-users will truly value."
Wireless Village intends to sponsor interoperability demonstrations of mobile devices and wireless services that support the Wireless Village specifications. Other industry leaders can join as Supporters of the Wireless Village initiative. As a Supporter, companies will be able to attend Supporter events (the first scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2001). They will also have early access to the specifications. Information on how to become a Wireless Village Supporter is available at the website www.wireless-village.org.
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