Most operators to opt for cloud-based RCS

Despite the operator support behind Rich Communications Services (RCS), 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, according to business systems firm SAP Mobile Services.

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

RCS is comprised of a set of open APIs designed to help developers incorporate real-time, ‘rich communications’ into mobile applications, such as next generation IP messaging, video and video calling.

The operator community in the form of the GSMA is backing the technology under the Joyn initiative, which is looking to deliver inter-carrier rich communications services.

The ‘inter-carrier’ part is an important element of RCS in an industry where platform agnostic OTT services like Skype already rule the roost.

Watch The Video Interview With John Sims Here

“LTE networks are moving to IP technology and once these networks are deployed in a domestic market then operators start thinking about interconnection of these services through IP on a global scale. Tomorrow’s world is about an array of different IP-based services including voice, messaging and data roaming,” said Sims.

“That’s why 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,” he said.