Updated: July 14, 2020 (July 11, 2005)

  Analyst Report

MSN, Vodafone Sign IM Deal

My Atlas / Analyst Reports

645 wordsTime to read: 4 min

MSN and Vodafone, a European wireless service provider, plan to link their instant messaging (IM) systems by 2006. The deal is the latest in a long string of MSN efforts to link PC users and mobile phone users via text-based messaging. However, while most of these previous services are subject only to data charges from carriers, MSN Messenger users will pay a fee each time they initiate an IM session with a Vodafone customer.

IM vs. SMS

Based in the United Kingdom, Vodafone owns and operates wireless networks mostly in Western Europe and has investments and partnerships with other companies around the world, including a 44% stake in Verizon in the United States. The company reaches several hundred million customers, some through ownership stakes in other companies, but about 108 million in its wholly owned subsidiaries.

Like most other wireless operators, Vodafone has long offered phone-to-phone text messaging using the Simple Messaging Service (SMS) protocol. In 2001, however, the company partnered with Followap to launch a more extensive IM service called Vodafone Messenger. This service allows Vodafone customers to exchange messages among a wide variety of devices—not only SMS phones but also PCs (using a proprietary IM client) and phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) with Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) browsers—and to determine their presence status. The sender pays a small fee (about 10 U.S. cents) each time a message is sent.

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