It’s day two of the CTIA show in Las Vegas, and the Interop team has been enjoying discussions with current and potential customers. The hot topic on operators’ minds is RCS—not whether they should offer this service to subscribers but rather how quickly they can get it up and running. The message is clear: over-the-top (OTT) services are having a dramatic impact on traditional messaging volumes, and operators realize they need to act now to maintain subscriber loyalty.

Written by Tammy Parker, editor of FierceWirelessTech.

Interop Technologies has partnered with a Canadian mobile operator on parallel lab testing of Rich Communication Services (RCS) with and without an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) core as the vendor strives to prove the time-to-market advantages for an operator that offers RCS even before it has established stable IMS functionality.

Moving to next-generation messaging services seems like a logical step in the ongoing evolution of wireless technology, but it appears that some operators are leaving the transition on the back burner. 

Though mobile users have embraced traditional messaging services, today’s converging communication environment offers a wide range of alternatives. In many ways, subscriber loyalty is shifting from the mobile network operator to the device itself and the capabilities it offers.

Today’s mobile phone users have wholeheartedly embraces messaging technology as a way to stay connected with family members, friends, and colleagues.