Reliance Communications Teams Up With Yahoo! India to Introduce Mobile Instant Messenger
TMCNet, January 23, 2007

Reliance Communications, India’s integrated telecommunications service provider and Yahoo! India have joined forces to introduce Yahoo! Instant Messenger for Reliance Mobile customers across India. The collaboration is expected to offer a live Instant Messenger (IM) PC experience on Reliance Mobile phones. As per the partnership with Yahoo! India, Reliance Communications becomes the first telecom service provider in the world to offer Mobile IM across Java, BREW and WAP phones on a mobile operator network.

With Mobile IM, Reliance Mobile customers can chat live with other Reliance customers, as well as any Yahoo! IM user in the world using their PC. Customers can also send instant messages and chat online with their friends and family, using the entire Yahoo! IM features including simultaneous multi-chat windows, presence status icons, emoticons, Yahoo! personal contact lists and profiles, and viewing off-line messages.

“As an innovation leader, Reliance is bridging the Digital Divide by extending the Internet-rich IM experience of the PCs to its mobile subscribers for the first time in India”, commented Mahesh Prasad, President - Applications Content and Solutions Group, Reliance Communications in a statement. “This brings us one step closer towards the convergence of the mobiles and the PCs”, he added.

Yahoo! Instant Messenger service client interface for Reliance was developed by ACL Wireless. Yahoo! Messenger for mobile is available on all BREW, WAP and Nokia color handsets using Java technologies.

“We are glad to partner with Reliance for Mobile IM services, in India. This unique service will add a new dimension in enhancing our user experience and provide yet another compelling way to stay connected, instantly and at all times,” commented George Zacharias, MD, Yahoo! India.

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