Paris and Barcelona —Alcatel-Lucent announced that it will create enhanced social networking experiences for consumers through the seamless integration of video and multimedia across mobile and fixed domains in collaboration with DOCOMO Communications Laboratories Europe GmbH (DOCOMO Euro-Labs), the German-based research center for Japan’s leading service provider NTT DOCOMO, Inc. The joint innovation project paves the way for end users to broadcast live video streams to social networking sites using their mobile device and more easily share and discover the posted multimedia web content of others.

By exploring new business models created from the exposure of unique network capabilities, DOCOMO Euro-Labs and Alcatel-Lucent are changing how consumers can participate in and interact with social networks to share their personal experiences with millions of others worldwide.  Providing access to network APIs (application programming interfaces) such as presence, network address book and web video share, allows developers to quickly ‘mash’ these services up in social networking applications to enhance and extend the subscriber experience.  As a result, consumers may soon be able to more easily play the role of reporter or paparazzi by broadcasting live video streams onto websites and uploading prerecorded video clips from any mobile device, laptop or personal computer.

The “Celebrity Tracker” project will be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, within the Alcatel-Lucent exhibit located at Hall 6, Booth 6C23.

“We have been collaborating with Alcatel-Lucent Solutions and Bell Labs on ways in which NTT DOCOMO can combine its network assets to deliver a variety of value-added services with video and multimedia to our subscribers as we want to provide more than connectivity,” said Dr. Masami Yabusaki, president & CEO of DOCOMO Communication Laboratories Europe GmbH.  “The rapid growth in user generated video and social networking make them areas of focus as they represent key subscriber lifestyle activities.”

Video content streamed and posted from mobile handsets can be automatically tagged using face recognition technology to allow others to easily discover and enjoy it on the web.  End users can also leverage the enhanced communication capabilities of GSMA’s Rich Communication Suite to send multimedia Instant Messages person-to-person or simultaneously with an unlimited number of friends, family and co-workers regardless of the devices being used within the social circle.

The joint innovation project is evidence that both companies believe an exciting new generation of rich services can be delivered to consumers and business users through service enablement incorporating an Application Enablement vision, which is focused on combining the trusted capabilities of service providers with the speed and innovation of the Web.

“DOCOMO Euro-Labs has embraced our Application Enablement vision to explore how opening up network assets can create compelling new video and multimedia services to enhance entertainment, social networking, collaboration and communication,” said Kenneth Frank, president of Alcatel-Lucent solutions.  “New business models between NTT DOCOMO, developers and advertisers can be created to generate new sources of revenue, and make video share applications and content available wherever subscribers are so they don’t have to navigate to destination sites. As a result, NTT DOCOMO can offer an enhanced video social networking experience that is unique in the industry.”