Rel Com launches mobile blogging

Mumbai: Sharing one's thoughts and pictures with the world is all set to go mobile with Telecommunications service provider Reliance Communications announcing the launch of its mobile

blogging service Mblog.

"The community of bloggers in India is growing and we want to ensure that pictures taken on mobiles are just not left in the phones. They can now be shared through mobile blogging and we are quite optimistic that millions of our users will make use of this powerful medium," Reliance Communications president (application solutions and content group) Mahesh Prasad said in a statement.

"Mobile phones are very convenient and outnumber PC or Internet users in India and lends nicely to community networking. Moreover mobile blogging is simple, easier and it's faster," he said.

Reliance Communications subscribers can now transmit images, videos and their thoughts with a group of friends or with everyone on the World Wide Web by posting the content on the Internet from their mobile phones.

Reliance Communications is the first telecom service provider in India to provide mobile blogging service on a pan-India basis without any cumbersome registration process.

The company has partnered with Hyderabad-based mobile content provider IMI Mobile for providing this service. To avail of this new service, Reliance Communications' subscribers have to MMS/SMS their text, pictures or videos to 1234.

A return SMS specifies the subscriber password and the website URL for the blog. One can have a 'buddy list' specifically from the subscribers phonebook, including both Reliance and non-Reliance subscribers. Every time there's a blog posted by the user, the 'buddy list' gets an SMS alert informing them to check out the blog on the specified URL.

To view the blog, one has to visit www.reliancecommunications.co.in/mblog and key in their password. The buddy list can be managed by visiting the website or alternatively through the messaging section of Reliance World.

Subscribers who don't have MMS or video capable handsets can send a text blog through an SMS to 1234 with the keyword mblog followed by the text posting. A nominal fee of Rs 5 will be charged per MMS blog and Rs 3 per SMS blog.