Over the last month the Network 2020 Programme has seen the momentum of RCS grow, in terms of launches and interconnection. With RCS regaining drive within the industry, we are seeing more and more devices that have embedded native RCS capabilities.
During April 2015 O2 launched and interconnected RCS with both Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom in Germany. In France this trend continued, Orange is already live with RCS but decided to revamp its solution by supporting joyn Blackbird, launching on Samsung devices and interconnecting with SFR. Following this SFR initially launched a RCS downloadable solution, however in the second wave of their launch they interconnected with Orange and now offer their consumers native RCS devices.
Not only is RCS gaining momentum in Europe but also in Asia. After a long period with no news, Singtel has launched its RCS solution branded as ‘Waivee’.
On the VoLTE front we can see a rapid acceleration of launches with Vodafone leading in EMEA, South Africa and Germany, closely followed by O2’s launch in Germany.