Orange to make its OTT comms app Joyn-compatible

Operator group France Telecom-Orange has said that its OTT communications app Libon will become Joyn-compatible and offer RCS services once it has deployed Joyn services across Europe.

The firm made the announcement as it launched Libon for Android devices. The service was launched for iOS devices in November 2012.

The Android version is already available to Orange customers globally, downloadable from Google’s Play store, with the exception of the US where it will be launched next month.

Using the app, Orange customers will be able to take advantage of free HD quality voice calls over 3G or wifi, instant messaging, cloud backup services and personalised visual voicemail from their Android devices. Person to person services require both parties to have the app installed.

Upon making the app Joyn-compatible, further functionality will become available within the app, such as chat and group chat, files transfer and on-call content sharing.

Orange was one of the three operators to launch Joyn services in Spain in November last year.  However, despite the operator support behind the initiative, business systems firm SAP Mobile Services has warned it will only be the very biggest international players that deploy the technology in their own networks. The rest will look to cloud-based offerings to fulfil their needs.

“Only the biggest operators in world will deploy RCS in their networks. Beyond the top five or ten operators globally, the rest of the industry will look for a hosted solution,” John Sims, president of SAP Mobile Services, recently told telecoms.com.

“Everything that is cloud based reduces time to market. Instead of having to go through certain processes to deploy software in their own network, operators are able to collapse that time, as well as pay for it on a per-use basis so that it matches revenue more closely,” Sims added.