Japanese carriers to start group chat for cellphones: report

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2005

TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese mobile telephone operator KDDI will start a group chat service later this year allowing five users to converse and share text messages and pictures, a report said.

KDDI, Japan's second-biggest mobile operator, will launch several cellphone models with the new function by the end of the year, with the service available on all models by early next year, the Asahi Shimbun said.

The new mobiles will use technology known as "push-to-talk" for group chatting, in which a user would press a button to open a conversation like when using a transceiver, it said.

Others listen to it simultaneously, with a second member in the group pressing the talk button to carry the conversation on once the first person finishes, it said.

The KDDI...