India’s Reliance Jio has announced that it has the largest and fastest growing Advanced Communications (VoLTE and RCS) community in the world. The operator reached an incredible 100 million subscribers in record time – faster than many OTT messaging services. Jio’s service gives users access to features such as chat, group chat, file transfer, location share and stickers, and is based on the GSMA’s Universal Profile (UP) for Advanced Messaging, which is currently backed by 76 operators, OEMs and OS providers worldwide and is growing rapidly as RCS is adopted by consumers around the world.
Subscribers can use the service by downloading the Jio4GVoice app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, which allows them to make voice and video calls without requiring a VoLTE-enabled device. After obtaining a Jio SIM, subscribers only have to download the app to benefit from high-quality calls in addition to RCS’ enhanced messaging features such as group chat, file transfer, location share, and stickers. Jio4GVoice was developed with WIT Software, who deployed the Advanced Communications service as part of Jio’s 4G network launch in September 2016.
Operators now have a number of different options open to them from a number of different providers including Google and Samsung if they want to provide RCS advanced messaging services to their subscribers either from a cloud-based or on-premises solution. These solutions are all interworking and interoperable due to the GSMA’s Universal Profile specification which was published in 2016.
The GSMA will issue a second release of the Universal Profile in Q2 2017 that upgrades the service further by enabling Application-to-Person RCS messaging and RCS-capable chatbots, as well as additional messaging features. The profile works on all supporting devices and operating systems and across all operator networks.
For further information on the GSMA’s work on the Universal Profile, please Click Here