Birla AT&T launches new messenger service

Usha Somayaji
10 April 2001

Mobile phone service provider, Birla AT&T, announced the launch of a messaging information service, ''Mssngr,'' to its 200,000 subscribers in Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat, on the low cost SMS channel.

''Mssngr'' is powered by technology from wireless application service provider, iSolv, who had recently launched mChat (mobile chat), another wireless mobile technology. This will make a range of value added data services accessible to the wireless carrier subscriber.

The new service, available in chat-mode, will be extended in three phases. The first will allow basic person-to-person messaging connectivity, the second from person-to-Internet and the third will be with sites which give specific information.

Talks are on with entities like HDFC, NDTV, etc., for the purpose. Initially, the information will be of the "lighter" category, such as jokes, horoscope, and banking, said Rajat Mukarji, vice president, business development, Birla AT&T, at the launch of the service, in Pune.

"This will be the first salvo of services. All AT&T subscribers will have a dedicated email account. Over the next couple of months, some of the services that would be added to the range would be banking, downloading tunes, graphics, (which would be handset dependent), interactive games, railway schedules, airlines schedules, and in fact all the ''yellow page'' information services," said Mr. Mukarji

"The ''Mssngr'' service comes as a combination of connecting the wireless world with the Internet world," says iSolv MD, Milind Agnihotri. "The power comes from harnessing content and marrying it to mobile technology, and bringing those applications to the end user device. Essentially, it''s bringing the power of mobility to the Internet."