Nearly 30 years ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the wireless trade association CTIA, started a conversation about the need for wireless location-based services. It wasn’t until 1988 that the FCC agreed on the ruling to require wireless carriers to enable subscriber location tracking through cell towers to be used for emergency response systems— and it would take yet another 10 years before we saw the advent of the “text message” and another 14 years for emergency alerting to become what it is today in our hyper-mobile world.

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.

This week at CTIA, Interop Technologies came out with an RCS-e solution that can enable wireless service providers to offer feature-rich messaging without the time and investment requirements of IMS.

Think you've got the fastest thumbs in the West? If so, grab your "BFF" and head over to booth #5636 during the CTIA Wireless 2009 trade show April 1-3 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.