10 January 2007

Microsoft confirms
Symbian mobile messenger charges!

After some reports that Windows Mobile and Symbian users were all seeing notifications informing them to sign up for a trial period for Windows Live Mobile Messenger.

Guys over at LiveSide - News blog have received a statement back from Microsoft which confirms that charging for Messenger usage on a mobile devices will only harm Symbian useres, which conflicts with Microsoft's recent moves such as making a tailored Symbian client that is available to all S60 device users.

In addition, Microsoft confirmed that pricing will vary by country and approximate cost will be around €2 per month.

The rollout for Symbian users looks set to be as follows:

Phase 1: Direct Consumer billing begins in 10 markets January-March 2008 (Sweden, UK, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Australia)

Phase 2: Direct Consumer billing begins April-June 2008 (Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland)

Here's what Matt Champagne, Director of Windows Live Mobile Services said:

"This week we rolled out a direct-to-consumer billing service for the Windows Live client on Nokia S60 in the UK and Sweden. Although we are considering doing the same at a future time for Windows Mobile, this has not been implemented – however, something happened and many of you saw a trial message on Windows Mobile devices. Windows Mobile customers shouldn’t have received any notifications of a 30-day trial and we are working as quickly as possible to correct this.

As you may know, we offer Messenger services through mobile operators on lots of handsets, not just Windows Mobile. Traditionally, customers have been billed by their mobile operators for many of these services, either directly or through their data package."