Alcatel-Lucent launched a new ‘Mobilefriends’ service in France which enables mobile subscribers to create social networking communities over the SMS channel and also monetize these communities.

The service aims to appeal to a wider range of social communities such as schools. Soccer clubs, community web sites, companies as well as brands. Alcatel-Lucent says major brands can use the platform to address their employee communities and manage marketing campaigns.

The revenue generation is through the SMS sent by community members and will be shared between the community creator as well the mobile operator. Typical SMS charges applicable on the service are 20, 30 or 50 euro cents per SMS.

Alcatel-Lucent claims that a similar service launched in Switzerland saw 500 B2B customers and 10,000 communities being created.

“The services market is changing; consumers become more and more involved and dynamic. They are ready to pay for a service which will help save time, bring a new experience or the feeling of being important and having fun. Mobile service providers are also looking for new models to monetize their content,” said Jean-Philippe Poirault, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s Integration Services Division and president of MNC.