MSN and Vodafone today announced plans to launch a seamless instant messaging (IM) service between PCs and mobile phones. Customers of both companies will be able to see the "presence" of their contacts and exchange instant messages between MSN Messenger on a PC and Vodafone Messenger on mobile phones and vice versa.

The service will bring together customers of MSN Messenger, the world's largest instant messaging service with more than 165 million customers worldwide, and Vodafone, which has almost 155 million customers around the world, as messaging continues to grow in popularity on PCs and mobile phones. Initially,  MSN and Vodafone will launch the messaging service in various European countries, including Spain, before the end of the year. 

The service will be based on the familiar mobile commercial model of "Calling Party Pays", where users will only pay for messages sent and not for connection. As they do today, Vodafone customers will prepay or pay for the service through their monthly bill, while MSN Messenger customers will be able to pay through packages available in connection with MSN Messenger.

Building on and complementing the messaging success of SMS, instant messaging between PCs and mobile phones enables new service benefits to customers such as immediacy, the ability to tell whether a contact is available to receive a message (presence) and the ability to see the text of whole conversations. By adding the service functionality of IM and by connecting MSN and Vodafone customers, both companies expect more frequent interaction between PC and mobile customers, resulting in more traffic.