Samsung acquires specialist for advanced SMS successor

Samsung has acquired the Canadian division of the company NewNet Communication Technologies. This business unit specializes in rcs, the advanced successor to SMS that the telecom industry is working on.

Samsung is buying the division that NewNet Communication Technologies bought two years ago and which did business under the NewPace name. After the takeover as a subsidiary of Samsung, it will be called NewPace again and will provide the infrastructure and services for the rcs standard. The acquisition will accelerate construction, the South Korean company claims. Both companies are silent on how much Samsung pays for NewPace.

The announcement of the acquisition comes a day before the GSM Association, the umbrella organization of the telecom industry, unveils the Universal Profile for Advanced Messaging standard. This is a further development of rcs.

With Universal Profile, telecom companies are making a new attempt to form an alternative to WhatsApp in particular. Many carriers want this to succeed because they are missing out on a lot of SMS revenue due to the popularity of mobile instant messaging. UP should offer similar functionality, with support not only for chat, but also photo and video sharing, support for stickers and the ability to integrate chatbots. The GSM Association hopes that the adoption can go quickly because UP, just like SMS, comes in the standard Messaging app of smartphones. Although Google does integrate UP into Android, Apple does not participate, so it will not be usable on every device.