Most phones today have a lot of capabilities that make them pretty much similar to the personal computers and one of those is their capability to run instant messaging applications.

In a lot of countries around the world, such services are offered by mobile phone operators and now the time has come that India too have such a software platform implemented on the cellphones to help teenagers and everybody else interested in such means of communication to stay connected 24/7.

This type of communication technology has been made available by the carriers to expand the online experience offered by the mobile phones to the users and now, there is no need whatsoever to have a computer, but only to use an instant messenger like Yahoo or Google chat.

The Indian GSM has announced the launch of the MIM instant messaging service at a Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) seminar that took place on Monday.

Even if some of you think this only is an alternative to the already available IM services already available on mobile devices, MIM will take the next step and will provide the Indian mobile telephony users with the means to chat with friends and family members that get online from their laptops or PCs.

As the secretary of the Department of Telecom, DS Mathur, has declared, the only requirement this new service will need to work is a web enabled handset with GPRS connectivity and this means the costs will be very low due to the normal GPRS charges that will automatically shrink down the phone bill.

The MIM service is expected to be launched in India in the next 3 or 4 weeks by mobile phone operators like Idea, Aircel, Reliance Telecom, Spice, BPL, BSNL, MTNL, Bharti Airtel and Hutc-Essar and as Ashok Juneja the COAI Technical Committee Chairman has said the percentage of mobile users with IM enabled handsets will rise from 4% to 62% in 2010.