Orange, Vodafone Push Mobile Social Networks

Facebook Mobile on iPhone

Both Orange and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) are looking to get their users interacting with each other by launching new software on their handsets….

Orange: France Telecom-owned Orange on Wednesday rolled out Social Life in the UK, an aggregator that lets users post to their social networking profiles and send messages via the Orange World mobile site using one login. Currently the app just has Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, but more will be added this year. Orange PAYG customers get free access and it’s also free for some monthly subscribers. In the year ended in June, Orange’s UK mobile subscribers rose by just 0.6 percent to 15.83 million. Orange also announced the launch of its “Orange Widget Player,” a video player providing quick access to news, sports and other content from the Orange World homepage. Release.

Vodafone: The mobile operator may soon be rolling out social networking tools to its wider network, more than a year after buying Dutch mobile social plaftorm Zyb for £25 million. Thanks to “a Vodafone insider”, TechCrunch got hold of two videos (see one embedded below) “Vodafone People,” which organizes users’ contacts and messages across mobile and PC. And it’s not just for Vodafone users, but people on 247 networks. The company appears to have set up a Twitter account to promote the service when it officially launches.

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