Push-to-talk First European Wireless Trial

Europe : Radiolinja will be the first European mobile network operator to trial fastmobile's new fastchat push-to-talk service that combines instant messaging, picture messaging and radio phone-like voice messaging in one application. By participating in the trial, Radiolinja will become one of the first carriers anywhere to test a genuinely multi-modal instant communication service in a real-world environment.

Significantly for operators including Radiolinja, fastchat is easy to install and requires no infrastructure investment. It will comply with all future standards, such as those being developed under the terms of a three-way agreement by Siemens, Nokia and Ericsson.

Kirsi Valtari, Radiolinja's vice president of technology, said: "fastchat offers a new inviting application and expands GPRS services. We believe that in the near future there will be a lot of new applications because of open platforms in mobile devices".

fastmobile develops, hosts and distributes innovative instant communication services that optimise one-to-one and group interactions between mobile consumers. Built on a patent pending technology platform developed over a period of nearly three years, services operate globally on 2.5 and 3G mobile networks and enable customers to communicate with friends, family or other communities anywhere in the world.

fastchat is a global multi-modal instant communications service that enables use of compatible phones as both multimedia messengers and walkie-talkies. It works across all UK operators, and in all countries that have GPRS-enabled networks.

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Radiolinja will be the first European mobile network operator to trial fastmobile's new fastchat push-to-talk service that combines instant messaging, picture messaging and radio phone-like voice messaging in one application.

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