Advanced carrier services provider Metaswitch Networks has just released an innovative Rich Communications Suite (RCS-e) 1.1 compliant Instant Messaging Server.

The enhanced Rich Communications Suite is a strategic initiative supported by five of the leading European operators: Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and Vodafone (News - Alert). 

The RCS is designed to deliver a simplified extension to voice and text, enabling subscribers to send instant messages, video chat and exchange files in real- time, a press release stated. In addition, the new solution enables mobile operators to meet the growing demands of subscribers for advanced carrier services and combat increased competition from Over-the-Top (OTT) competitors eroding minutes, revenue and subscriber mind share.

After finalizing the RCS-e standards, the advanced carrier services provider completed product development. The company also extended testing with its primary channel partners. This partner ecosystem provides operators with flexible solutions that guarantee open integration and interoperability between network elements and handset applications.

“Nokia Siemens Networks (News - Alert) continues to enjoy an excellent relationship with Metaswitch Networks,” said Uwe Puetzschler, head of SDF Global at Nokia Siemens Networks, in a statement. “Having the complete RCS-e feature set in our Munich Interoperability Testing environment makes it possible for us to proactively work with client vendors today.”

The release of this suite comes months after Metaswitch acquired Colibria, a provider of enhanced instant messaging, presence and network address book solutions. The company is driving the Colibria (News - Alert) Instant Messaging Server as a front runner in the RCS space.

Paul Kemps, vice president of worldwide partner channels and rich communications at Metaswitch said, “With established support for interoperability testing with the world’s largest IMS vendors and handset suppliers, we can deliver on operators’ aggressive launch schedules with minimal risk.”